Here we go again at Midnight City. My darkhorse favorite setting in all of the MSPAdventures canon. In fact, as much as I love everything that’s going on in HS^2 (a very uncontroversial comic) this is probably my favorite storyline we’ve got going. For obvious reasons, probably. I’m not sure if I honestly have anything too new or groundbreaking to report. I love cheesy bullshit noir, and one day I will write an entire game completely filled with cringey pastiche of men in crumpled suits smoking and making eyes at each other.

PANELS 1-2

Jumping right in. Diamonds Droog is back and he’s sobered up. He’s intensely unamused by this fact; we’re led to believe that sober is not a state he finds himself in very often. He’s just trying to enjoy a relaxing smoke here, but Dad is not the sort to ignore posted signs and placards. It’s ungentlemanly to ignore the rules. DD is surprised by this, suggesting that you can still smoke in most bars and restaurants in Midnight City. In Magical Noir Land you can typically smoke wherever you want. Either that or it’s the nineties.

On second thought, Dad might not actually care that much about the sign. He just likes fucking with DD.

PANEL 3

Problem Sleuth, the Midnight Crew, and other such works all have a formula of very intricate wordplay, meta-levels, and mindfuckery. But you don’t often get the characters introspecting much. In a way, it’s Homestuck without the personalities to distract from the metaphysics. Both style AND substance, but without much time for heavy self-owns.

DD is experiencing what us in the business call a “depressive episode”. And sometimes to get out of one of those you just need a snappily-dressed dad to come and light your cigarette. Or something.

PANEL 4

This might be my favorite panel in all of HS^2. Or possibly all of homestuck Haven’s art is just so dynamic. He took my extremely boring panel description “they get into the elevator” and made it awesome.

PANELS 5-7

Just look at these toughs. No sense of decorum. Don’t they know a gentleman of breeding doesn’t just start fights in the middle of the hotel corridor

I actually can’t remember why I decided to have this scene take place at a hotel. I guess it could have really been anywhere. I think I’d just watched John Wick, or something, and had hotels on the brain.

PANEL 8

God. This panel. The blocking. The rain! Everything about it rules. As usual, you get my extremely informed and interesting takes on art. Which consist of me going “golly”.

Here we get a little indication that Dad doesn’t really know what to make of Diamonds Droog. He has a leg up on him in that he’s known a different version of Droog, while Droog doesn’t know him at all. But I’m not exactly sure how well this knowledge is going to serve him. This guy is a completely different sort of guy. He’s been done dirty by someone he trusted, which is always a hard thing to recover from.

PANEL 9

And here he is, the man himself. The guy Diamonds Droog is getting systematically drunk over. What exactly was the nature of their relationship That’s complicated, my guy, you got two hours and a fifth of gin For our current purposes, all we need to know is that Diamonds Droog feels really badly done by the guy. And sometimes that’s all you need. A good chunk of the ways we felt like we’ve been done wrong exists in our heads. That doesn’t mean it’s any less impactful, but nevertheless. Not to say Slick DIDN’T do something fucked up. Just…Diamonds Droog has taken it and turned pining into an art form.

PANEL 10

Another great panel. I love the white gun. The monochrome of all of this is really incredible.

Yeah, says another voice. A cool, smoky voice that lights a greasefire of dread in your guts.

I was pretty proud of this line. Anybody who knows my writing can probably tell who I am from this line alone. Repetition, weird metaphor, descriptions of burning physicality. Oh, it’s that bitch.

PANEL 11

Always Has Been