ULTRASOFIAWORLD is a game I made for my sister’s birthday, starring her as every character. What started as a simple joke grew into a psychedelic odyssey that is hard to describe. Unfortunately a description will have to suffice, as the game has not been publicly released. In the process of making the game, however, the audio tracks I wrote for it took on a life of their own, and transformed into a complete soundtrack that I couldn’t not share. Many questions could be asked about this; “why all the saxophones”, perhaps, or “how come you put so much effort into this instead of a proper album?” In response, I suggest that you lie back, relax, and immerse yourself in whatever the hell this thing is that you’re listening to. (Album cover visages courtesy of my ever-patient-with-my-antics sister). 

The Homestuck Epilogues: Bridges And Off-Ramps

by Andrew Hussie

The history of printed version of The Homestuck Epilogues is also the history of The Homestuck Epilogues themselves, because I originally envisioned releasing them only as a book like this, to even further emphasize their conceptual separation from the main narrative. If you know anything about the epilogues, you probably already understand that conceptually distinguishing themselves from the story by their presentation as “fanfiction” is an important part of their nature and what they are trying to say. In the form of a book (which you can read from one side, or flip upside down and read from the other) it somewhat carries the feeling of a cursed tome. Something which maddeningly beckons, due to whatever insanity it surely contains, but also something which causes feelings of trepidation. There’s an ominous aura surrounding such a work, probably for a few reasons. The sheer size of it means the nature of the content probably isn’t going to be that trivial. The stark presentation of the black and white covers, its dual-narrative format, the foreboding prologue combined with an alarming list of “content warnings”, and even the fact that an “epilogue” is delivered with a “prologue” first, all adds up to a piece of media that appears designed to make the reader nervous about what to expect from it. Such is the nature of a cursed tome retrieved from a place which may have best been left undisturbed. It is also the nature of any creative inclination to reopen a story which had already been laid to rest - a reader’s desire to agitate and then collapse the bubble which contained the imagined projection of “happily ever after”, simply by observing it. There exists inherent danger in a reader’s eagerness to collapse that bubble, or to crack that tome. There is also danger in a creator’s willingness to accommodate that desire. It’s a risk for all involved. It should be.

• People who create art are not responsible if bad people are somehow influenced to replicate immoral acts they portray. For the same reason that arguing against video games depicting violence in case it causes violence is bunk, so is arguing against fiction writers portraying problematic relationships bunk. People have their own responsibility to be good people, and it’s their responsibility to know the difference between write and wrong, not random people whose media they consume.
• Fiction can, of course, be critiqued on its tendency to romanticize problematic elements. However, this is not a critique that is applicable across the board. Romanticisation implies a context that does not contain pointers to a potential portrayal of problematic dynamics, and presents them to a general audience in a context where it would be expected that you might encounter content that would be considered to be problematic in the real world. Tagged fanfiction published in niche online communities, where one has to actively search for a particular type of content to find it, is not such a context. The framing of most fanfiction is upfront about the content that it contains and implicitly assumes that readers should understand what that means and have sensible moral opinions about it. Ensuring this beyond correctly including tags and warnings is not the responsibility of creators.
• Fictional characters are not real. This means more than “they do not exist as beings on the physical plane”, it means that fictional characters are groups of concepts and traits that are not inextricably tied to one another. No “version” of a fictional character is in any way more real or valid than any other, including the interpretation of the original author. They’re all fake. With respect to shipping discourse, it is in no way more problematic to re-imagine a young character as older, and subsequently ship them with an older character, as it would be if the author wrote about them getting older and subsequently forming a relationship. Neither interpretation is real. Neither versions have any baggage necessarily attached to them. These are just thoughts and ideas, and you shouldn’t let your attachment to a particular narrative line make you treat them as otherwise.
• It’s okay not to like things. It’s okay to hate them, and be disgusted by them. It’s okay to not look at them and wish that never existed. That’s fine. That does not mean that a thing is intrinsically bad for existing. That does not mean that the creator deserves to be harassed. Such attitudes are reactionary and reductive, not to mention harmful and, at worst, abusive.
• You cannot read minds. Do not presume that you know why a person might be attached or interested in a piece of fiction, or a fictional element. You do not know, and you are not entitled to that information.
• Violent retribution is not okay even when it is directed against people you don’t like. All people are people, even when you hate them. You can’t opt out of your objections to retributive violence and coordinated abuses when you personally dislike the people that it is aimed at. These are universal principles.
• Think about why the people you feel comfortable with attacking for creating media you dislike are often overwhelmingly women, queer people, and other minority groups. Is there perhaps an institutional reason why you feel more comfortable directing abusive attacks at these people? Perhaps it feels like they are less likely to have recourse? Perhaps people who face abuses from society are more likely to find value and catharsis in works that you find unpleasant. Food for thought.

Originally there was some backstory content hidden in some cursed tags in this site code. I came up with the concepts years ago for internal purposes, not originally intended for public consumption. I thought some might find it interesting if the material were leaked in the site code in an obscure way. I think it has proven to be neither obscure as imagined, nor all that rewarding to read. The subject matter was inflammatory in careless ways, and the negative reactions to it are legitimate and should have been expected. A drafting process can be messy and can result in some ill-advised nonsense which often should not see the light of day. Letting a bunch of rough draft text files be deployed in this way was not a well considered move. Obviously this material has hurt a lot of people. Which isn’t what I was going for, and didn’t anticipate, but certainly should have. As far as the intentions behind it, I’m sure I believed it would be read as condemnation through satire, but instead it came off as excessively irreverent and disrespectful of a sensitive topic (to be clear, the main topic relates to antisemitism, which of course is not an issue that should be handled frivolously). After receiving criticism it’s obvious to me where I’d been mistaken, and why no one could have possibly read it the way it was intended. I know this content was bad, I regret putting it in a place where people would discover it, and I regret that it was drafted in the first place. I acknowledge that there are certain subjects which demand an exceptional level of care, and that I have been inexcusably thoughtless in handling this. I understand that there should be a certain standard of consideration and review for the content that is presented to an audience, and in forgoing that consideration there have been serious consequences for those people whom this issue directly affects. This could have been easily avoided had I sought a more careful review before it was posted to ensure that what I actually wanted to convey was being properly conveyed. I am sorry that this lapse of judgment has been hurtful to so many people. I cannot undo the damage that this has caused, but I can promise that I am aware of the gravity of this mistake and that, going forward, I will be more mindful of the serious impact careless decisions have on those they hurt.

• First, google how to turn on the renpy console. You’ll have to edit some files
• Once you have the console, open it at any point before Tagora is meant to arrive
• Type “show tagora neutral at center”
• He’ll appear on the screen, ignore him  
• One cue, when he’s meant to appear, he’ll transition into the right place and act as intended.