"John: Leave a surprise for the mailman." Knowing that no one else would be up to the task, as Karkat was already heading back to Boston, Rose resigned to her role as the sole person who would read Homestuck aloud to her group.
She had no convictions for the cause that it is truly her group, though. Neither of the four kids seemed like a definitive leader of the group; it was simply a web of friendships that had gotten so thick that only the kids themselves could resolve what was going on, and each of them did it through his own perspective, only being able to comment on three relationships and therefore being blissfully unaware of the other three.
Perhaps if there was a psychologist that was better in Rose within arms' reach, they would be able to comment on the group. But for now, it was down to trying to resolve the relationship and therefore strengthening it even more. Most likely, this was the reason why the relationship had become a part of the lives of those involved with it, lasting for more than a third of the lives in question.
Unfortunately, Rose had to put the thoughts aside as she witnessed yet another inane comment from John. "is the surprise something involving me shitting in the mailbox or something?" he said, twisting Rose's train of thought into an entirely different form. Luckily, she was able to gather words for this occasion and therefore responded:
"No need to jump to the vulgar connotations so immediately. You'll have to mature, just as the readers of the comic did, presumably."
"They didn't." And of course Andrew Hussie knew his own webcomic better than anyone else, especially his own characters. "I simply took away the ability for them to mercilessly direct the story."
"Understandable, assuming the fanbase hasn't changed all that much since the times of Jailbreak." Rose had kept a surprising streak of not losing it and becoming silent when the topic was suddenly switched. It wasn't tracked, but one could only presume that it was longer than her Duolingo streak.
"No, you see, the fanbase did change the moment I introduced the trolls and troll romance. But by then, it was already too late." And once again, Hussie's sick burns took the crown. No one could expect to out... out-own Hussie in sick burns. The sick burns were his and his only, and the real fight was over how much of them he had handed over to his characters. And the answer, in case of John and Rose, was "none".
John and Rose resigned as they watched his hand proceed onto the blue link, which didn't feature an arrow. Though, figuring that the candy that Hussie gave was free, both of them took another arrow as they waited for the page to load.
Once the page loaded, the three went on to observe the image. It appeared that John wanted to peek inside his father's car and got a view of... a green box and some envelope.
"Strange things to have inside one's car." Rose concluded.
"And both of them are plot-relevant, of course." It was pretty much obvious, given the format of Homestuck, but Hussie had to state it anyway.
"We will see how they become plot-relevant in later issues to the ongoing experience, in that case." Rose laid her thick comment, noting that she allowed the story to progress.
Though, the progress didn't seem all that noteworthy. Now, instead of peeking through the car's window, John was peeking through the house's window. And oh, look, another near-identical box was there, except it was red.
"So, are the bills relevant as well?" Rose poked fun at Hussie's demeanor.
"Now that you mention it... no. Too bad. A mistake of mine. I will attempt to make something as irrelevant as bills become the greatest enigma in the history of paradox space in, say, Dr. Brinner: Ghost Psychiatrist."
"Is that a creative work that you're actually writing?" Rose didn't feel it at the time, but she already was attracted to Hussie as a creator and wanted to read everything that he wrote, from Jailbreak to Homestuck to whatever this thing was.
"...No." After all, if Hussie was actively working on another creative project as of right now, he wouldn't have time to read Homestuck with his own characters.
"then why did you mention it?" John also wanted to debunk Hussie's magic. He was also intent on pulling him down from the pedestal that he had put himself on, and getting to see him as a normal person, rather than his own personal fairy god human creator.
"Because I'm weird like that. No more stupid questions. The mystery of Dr. Brinner is always going to remain as something about me that will never, ever be solved. Now let's return to Homestuck." Hussie sure meant business.
And reading Homestuck with his own characters was exactly what Hussie did, as he clicked on the next page. Without knowing it, John noticed that his comic version was back in the house, and preparing for an encounter with his father.
"let's hope for the best, then."
"Indeed." Rose and John held hands together. They were at Homestuck together, one could even conclude. Not that any sort of romance was taking place. It was simple "with you at your darkest days" friendship.
"Well, then let's roll the show on." Andrew thus clicked on the next page and, once again, let the sound take over.
Thump-thump.
John's father was truly presented as a menace among people. No other man in the universe could hold a cake this ruthlessly. The only person who could even match didn't have a cake, was not male, was not human and was not real.
Thump-thump.
The harlequin music permeated the room. John was slightly scared, even though he knew that his father didn't mean it. Rose only looked at the scene out of pure academic interest. Hussie only looked because there was nothing else to look at.
Thump-thump.
The suspense, quite reasonably, could kill. However, it didn't kill; it only froze our heroes in place, as they were anticipating the next move, once the update was over. For the first time, Homestuck was setting out to have some drama, and it turned out to be particularly good at that.
Thump-thump.
Eventually, though, the sound had stopped and it was time to move on.
Author's idiotisms: I haven't had a chapter with a title beginning with "the" in a while. Or, for that matter, an author's "idiotism."
At any rate, there's now a poll on my profile that concerns the fic's future. I suggest that you answer it right now.
