Panel -1 

a2: we’re establishing with an establishment shot because it’s been like 84 years since we’ve seen these motherfuckers. 

Panels 1-4 

A1 So much has happened since then. For us, I mean. For them, not so much. A perpetual closet panic for the last 3 months. 

a2: yeah, we’ve had a whole ass pandemic since any of this shit has happened. really makes you think. 

A1 Damn it really does. I understand the pathos of this now. 

A1 Anyway Harry Anderson is delightfully unaware and i love him for it

a2 a lot of this chapter has involved developing harry anderson, and he continues to be the only boy in the world for me. i love him dearly. what a little shit. 

A1 I think it’s really important to discuss what a good water fountain entails. There’s always one in every school that’s better than the other ones and this is absolutely vital knowledge that Harry Anderson should be texting about with his girlfriend who goes to another school.

A2 when i was in high school we texted some, but it was still mostly phone conversations? i guess i am very old. nowadays i can’t imagine ever wanting to talk to someone on the phone. 

A1 Rich coming from someone who is currently voice chatting with me right now.

a2 listen you are like my best friend, you don’t count as someone. 

A1 You love to hear it.

a2 —who is difficult to talk to. 

A1 [Gay emoji]

a2 anyway, i think the whole premise of this particular scene is extremely funny and also extremely scooby doo. like, whenever in actual life has anyone hid in a janitor’s closet? i doubt i could even have found the janitor’s closet in my high school. we just went into the band room to smoke weed. 

A1 Ah, the classic high school experiences that happen only in fiction.

A1 I think people smoked weed on the tennis courts at my high school but I was a massive fucking uptight nerd, so.

a2 i got into fights in high school and also stole shit. i was actually probably a pretty shitty kid, but i got straight A’s so nobody noticed. i was also deeply fucking depressed. when you have good grades nobody cares if you’re troubled. just a little bit of my trauma here for the audience. 

A1 Just like Tavros Crocker.

a2 i can’t believe you just made me tavros. well, actually, this tavros rules and i love him.  

A1 lmao. Harry Anderson is a solid C+ student and no one cares because of his other charms, which are plentiful.

a2 you wrote this part, do they really just leave gamzee’s body there? fucking power move. have this clown corpse, public school system. 

A1 I know they’re going against the cardinal rule of gamzee corpse management, turning their backs on it. But they’ve weighed their options and this is the only thing they can really do. Plus he is like actually dead this time so it’s fine. Vriska knows this. 

a2 yeah, drastic times etc. vriska really is on the next level here. she just made out with this guy and then choked him to death. and nobody here knows about that, as far as i can tell? like, they know she killed him. but the continuing theme is here that vriska is on like….a different playing field than the rest of them. like, they’re doing shenanigans and she is an actual warrior.  

A1 It’s not her first rodeo. Vrissy has a feeling about this later we will see.

Panels 5-8

a2 so i did the meenah and karkat parts, and i completely beefed it in the first draft by doing it in second person. which is SO much easier to write homestuck voice in, btw. i always feel like i’m doing a crime when i write in third person for these people. 

A1 It was so fucking funny when i started reading it and was like “wait…are we allowed to do this now? Are we just saying fuck it, 2nd person??” and then i told you what you’d done. Who knows. 5000 patrons and we’ll switch to 2nd person* (*not binding).

a2 yeah you always assume that i know what i’m doing, which is really amazing of you as a friend. but i usually don’t. 

A1 I try to give everyone the benefit of the doubt. Also I really wanted it to be true.

a2 anyway, enough bullshit. let’s talk about what really matters. candy karkat. or, as he’s been named in the fandom, big boss karkat. 

A1 I have limited metal gear knowledge but I do know a babe when I see one, and Candy Karkat is that.

a2 of course, you guys haven’t seen him yet. 

A1 All in good time. It’ll be worth it. Enjoy your crumbs for now. Let your thirst grow.

a2 it is actually deeply fucked up how metal gear the epilogue is in general, which is absolutely on purpose. because the authors are big metal gears. the eyepatch, for instance. although i guess more characters than big boss have an eye patch. eye patches are just sexy. 

A1 Yeah Vriska’s is pirate flavored. 

a2 yeah instead of deranged libertarian cult leader flavored. anyway karkat is not a libertarian. also he was a little tricky to write here, because i wanted him to still be karkat, i.e. grumpy and done with all of this shit, but also he’s middle-aged and a revolutionary leader. so he’s doubtless learned a little patience. 

A1 Yeah, he’s become the thing he always wanted to be as a kid, but like. Not at all the way he’d imagined. Basic ass commentary i know, i just like to think about it.

a2: yeah. when he was a kid on alternia he had this overwhelming need for companionship and intimacy that he could only really fathom as a need for power, because of the place he grew up. he abandoned that pretty quickly once they were on the meteor and he had that gaping hole in him filled. i mean. you know what i mean. metaphorical hole. the only good leader is the person who doesn’t want to be a leader, etc. etc. 

A1 Also I very much enjoyed meenah talking about karkat outlawing fish puns and then using one like half a page down. Karkat’s authority can only go so far.

a2: meenah is hard when you can’t do fish puns because you end up just veering into dave and roxy. 

A1 Karkat checking twitter: A March 2020 mood.

Panels 9-19

A1 This part of the outline was written before final edits and additions (including the Candy chapter where John talks to Roxy and then goes on a drive with Harry Anderson) to the Epilogues were made, so in order to make the timeline work, I had to get Harry Anderson home from school, continue to go on the drive with his dad like he does in Candy, and get him back to meet up with the kids, while also getting Roxy out of the way. It was kind of a pain in the ass, but also I think it ends up a little funnier because this fuckin guy cannot stop making things harder for Vriska/Vrissy/Tavros. 

a2 harry anderson is the friend who shows up two and a half hours late with starbucks, and he also got everybody’s orders wrong. 

A1 And then makes sure everyone cashapps him for it anyway.

A1 I hope everyone has a great time picking apart Harry Anderson’s room and interests. He’s got exquisite taste. Pokemon: the first movie would make an excellent live action musical, and Alien vs. Predator is simply one of the finest films ever made.

a2 i like that they have time to engage in love triangle nonsense. because of course they do. also “i know john is depressed and long-winded now” made me laugh out loud. that’s part of Being An Adult, vriska. 

A1 There’s always gotta be time for love triangle nonsense!! And lmao yeah, sorry Vriska. It comes with the territory (though to be fair, John has a pretty bad case at this point). 

A1 Also i think Vriska is just sort of having fun poking at the dynamics between the other three, not really placing herself on a level with them? 

a2 oh yeah, for sure. vriska is miles above these babies. also, she’s still half-convinced that this world isn’t real. 

A1 Yeah, and Vrissy is like. Not totally sure where Vriska is coming from, but she can tell she has a lot going on, which she’s both jealous and afraid of. Homestuck is extremely good for giving us multiple versions of characters, but they don’t often end up interacting with one another directly. So this dynamic is maybe my favorite to write and think about right now.

a2 another reason i think you would like metal gear, there is a whole lot of clone interaction. 

A1 Compelling. Noted. 

A3: WOAH HEY THERE FOLKS IT’S AUTHOR THREE HERE. SORRY FOR SHOUTING, IT’S JUST THE MOST DISTINGUISHABLE QUIRK LEFT UNUSED IN THIS CONVERSATION. JUST WANTED TO POP IN HERE TO SAY A FEW THINGS ABOUT HARRY ANDERSON’S ROOM. 

A3: SO HERE WE HAVE ANOTHER RETURN TO MSPA TRADITION WITH THE CLASSIC ‘EXAMINE ROOM’ PAGE, BUT RATHER UNIQUELY THERE IS NOBODY HERE. THERE’S SOMETHING PRETTY FUNNY ABOUT ONE OF THESE COMIC STAPLES JUST CHUGGING ON REGARDLESS, WITH OR WITHOUT ITS PARTICIPANTS. THIS ROOM *WILL* BE EXAMINED, WHETHER HARRY ANDERSON LIKES IT OR NOT.

A3: IF YOU HAVE ACCESS TO THE CONCEPT ART FOR THIS CHAPTER, YOU GET TO SEE WHAT ONE OF THESE ROOMS LOOKS LIKE WITHOUT ANY STUFF IN IT. IF YOU DON’T HAVE ACCESS TO THE CONCEPT ART FOR THIS CHAPTER, YOU CAN JUST IMAGINE A COMPLETELY BLANK, FEATURELESS WHITE CANVAS WITH LIKE, JUST SOME LINES I GUESS. ALSO VRISKA IS THERE BUT WE WON’T TALK ABOUT THAT.

A3: FILLING UP A CHARACTER’S ROOM WITH RANDOM SHIT LIKE THIS IS A GREAT WAY TO GET A BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF THEM AS A PERSON. IF YOU’RE STRUGGLING TO FIGURE OUT SOME MINOR DETAILS OR INTERESTS OF A CHARACTER YOU YOURSELF ARE WORKING ON, I THINK IT’S A FANTASTIC EXERCISE TO TRY EVEN IF YOU’VE NEVER DONE ANY ART BEFORE. SERIOUSLY, JUST GET A BUNCH OF SWEET JPEGS OFF GOOGLE IMAGES AND DUMP THEM IN A PHOTOSHOP DOCUMENT LIKE IT’S YOUR HOUSE IN ANIMAL CROSSING AND GO FUCKING HAM. IF YOU DO THIS I PROMISE YOU THAT YOU UNDERSTAND ABOUT NINETY-NINE PERCENT OF THE MSPAINTADVENTURES SIGNATURE STYLE.

A1 I did look at this room and say “oh, Harry Anderson has a large sloppy rug like the one i bought from Saharah.” so i think this tracks.

A3: I WAS TALKING TO ONE OF THE OTHER ARTISTS ABOUT THIS WHILE WE WERE MAKING IT ACTUALLY. THEY WERE LIKE ‘UGH, SET DRESSING IS SUCH A CHORE’, AND I WAS LIKE ‘I’M JUST PRETENDING THAT I’M ON MY ISLAND, ARRANGING FURNITURE I JUST BOUGHT AT NOOK’S CRANNY. I’VE… BEEN PLAYING TOO MUCH ANIMAL CROSSING. IT’S PRETTY POPULAR AT THE MOMENT. ONE COULD SAY THAT INTEREST IN THE GAME IS A BIT OF A PANDEMIC.

A1 I can sure tell you that when we are done with this upd8 i will be logging the fuck on to animal crossing, myself.

A3: THAT STUPID FUCKING BUNNY WILL BE WAITING FOR ME, I JUST KNOW IT. PLEASE GOD… NO MORE EGGS.

A1 Fanmade AC homestuck kid room stylings welcome. @ me with your AVP posters please

A3: YEAH BE SURE TO HIT A1, A2 AND MYSELF UP ON TWITTER WITH THOSE SWEET SCREENSHOTS.

A1 Good luck guessing who is who…maybe best to just @ every creator you can think of, just to be safe.

[panel 20-22]

a2 i like that even after all this distance and years, john and karkat have basically retained the same dynamic in their relationship. john being baffling and karkat just barely able to contain his rage. remember johnkat? johnkat was pretty good. 

A1 I had actually forgotten it, but I do love this well worn comfortable bickering. 

A1 Anyway, tune in next time to see how John Egbert can still win. (unless we go see what some other characters are doing instead, you never know).