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Comic Sketches: October - December 2021
🕑 Added 2022-06-08 01:44:42 +0000 UTCWelcome, everyone! Eddie here again. I hope you've all been well during this brief hiatus, which featured no behind-the-scenes content of our silly aliens or blatantly plagiarized chess people. But all of that's about to change!
The start of this commentary was written by Austin a few months ago, so I'm going to keep it as is, and I'll also be noting in all future posts whenever we've got a BONAFIDE AUSTINADO QUOTE in our hands. Rest assured, you'll still get a few snippets from the Big Man themself once in a while. And as we keep chugging along and working on restructuring our Patreon, we're also gonna start the process of catching up on our backlog of comic development posts. And boy, there is a lot to get through. So sit down, buckle up, and hang tight!
Time to brave some fancy-schmancy horses, moon kingdoms, sunflower fields and deeply traumatizing school adventures.
AUSTIN: Serpaz has a tendency to get pouty, discontent or otherwise rambunctious whenever she doesn't immediately get her way. We see this when she accidentally triggers Sova's PTSD, and in a far more justified manner when Edolon tricks her with the ol' project and deflect.
AUSTIN: As silly as this scene is, it shows off exactly how that mindset works out for Serpaz nine times out of ten.
Yeah, sure, any horse would probably flail around like constipated mechanical bull in an overpriced two star tex mex restaurant if you started wailing on its neck, but Serpaz has a propensity to double down on these conflicts when it really isn't necessary.
AUSTIN: I completely understand the desire in this case. Herbert Butterhooves is an outright detestable bitch who doesn't know how to take a joke.
AUSTIN: Devices automatically having a helmet mode is just an inherently funny concept to me. Especially if you pair it with the idea that their text-to-speech is able to actually not mince words and know the characters inflections well enough to add their flair AND emotes.
AUSTIN: A lot of this conversation is centered on Serpaz's desire to control what she feels and how she feels it; to not allow dismay to take her over and instead put her best foot forward, even if that means never processing anything at all.
It's a running theme that shifts and writhes into different maligned shapes inside all of VE's core cast, about as much as memories and nostalgia do the same. 
AUSTIN: Serpaz's flavor of this is particularly insidious, being that it completely revolves around pretending the problem isn't there so hard that she wills it into becoming "truth". Compare this to someone like Albion, who only resisted against herself for so long because she was told it was necessary.
Serpaz actively chooses to crumple any shred of guilt, sadness, anger, or doubt into a gnarly ball and toss it somewhere else - while lacking the object permanence to recognize that just because it's out of sight, doesn't always mean it's out of mind.
Laivan puts her ideas down better than I could recount it to you. Serpaz's lack of knowledge when it comes to obscure old-timey human metaphors really bites her in the ass here, and knowing her, I would say it's likely it will later too.
AUSTIN: Laivan has his own tango to tread lightly around when it comes to this kind of concept. But he's a much different beast. Funnily enough I think he's one of the cast's most unique when you line him up against the others, mainly because his problems are rooted in other peoples problems.
He doesn't enjoy being so self-serving, it's just not in his nature.
He's a fixer, after all.
AUSTIN: This was actually a cut idea, where Sova would have messaged Serpaz at the last second and it would lead into a later conversation between them.
It wound up not making too much sense with the rest of the scene's context, so it was scrapped and replaced with some more Laivan dialogue that really sells his hidden discomfort with the last leg of their conversation.
AUSTIN: The High Horses and certain aspects of LOSAF's aesthetic are pretty clearly rooted in Alice In Wonderland imagery, even if tangentially, something that our source material also did not shy away from more than a couple times.
Here it's not really shown what it's used for in relation to Serpaz, but if you've read the novel, you might have some idea of what her quest is supposed to be.
And here we are with our old familiar friends, the carapaces.
AUSTIN: The carapacian storyline, or the "C-plot" as we call it, is a really interesting part of VE's development history.
I don't think many fans really intended to ever see characters like CM or VP despite their placement front and center on posters, and even in Act 2 in VP's case.
AUSTIN: A part of this is due to changing priorities with how their plot is structured and their place in the narrative. In an old piece of track art for 'Song Of The Lost' on VE Vol. 3, you can see some pretty standard exile designs for the main four carapaces on Repiton.
AUSTIN: Originally, these carapaces were supposed to play a similar role in VE's greater narrative, eventually coming in contact with the main 12 directly and aiding in war efforts with the secondary cast.
This isn't our plan with them anymore. Not because we have no interest in them, but the plot just doesn't work or carry any weight with what the comic has since established. You'd be getting something much too similar to what you've seen before without enough of a spin to keep it interesting.
We're sort of past that point now. Charmed Defalcator burned our bridge with trying to follow up on Homestuck quite severely with his magnum ass.
AUSTIN: The Dead Shufflers have taken a chair of character responsibility when it comes to greater narrative events anyway. They are the reigning stock lords of pawn pushback, the faulty lottery ticket operatives that forward objective obstruction.
Comparatively, carapacian royalty and other such soldiers don't really have a grand place in this particular session in terms of function, as we see in this update. 
AUSTIN: Their roles have been greatly reduced without many of the mechanics that allowed for their stronghold over Sburb, and almost feel obsolete in this game's design. If anything? Often they're a hindrance both to player, the objective and each other. Which is what they're supposed to be!
The problem is that with this being the deciding endgame of 144 universal repeats and all of tangible and hypothetical reality hanging in the balance, that core struggle is not useful. It does not evoke anything greater, it does not help anyone. 
AUSTIN: We are at a point where this redundancy and refusal of change leads to solely detrimental results.
AUSTIN: And this section's focus is on why that is, how it came to be, and where it will inevitably lead if allowed to continue as it has been.
Aaaand I'll be just taking the mic from Austin now thank you.
Flashback time!
Ah, the idylls of the past. Ain't that just gorgeous? Xam really knocked it out of the park with the yellow and purple combo. Austin already said up there that the carapacians went through a lot of growing pains, but I think we ended up at a pretty original spot. Like, why just retread stuff Homestuck already did instead of coming up with something original that fits your story better?
Women want him, fish fear him.
If you pay attention, you might recognize the particular shades of purple and green at the top there. What could it all mean?????? (It's Gaiaeon and Kheparia. That's what it means.)
It's a point of note that the entire dersite/prospitian conflict broke out as an analogue to the one between Those Two, which is also the entire reason we even need a game in the first place. Parallels all the way down, baby.
Austin left the introduction of carapacian royalty ambiguous here:
AUSTIN: Did this form of rulership come naturally over time? Did White Noise introduce that element intentionally? Who can say. All we know is that they spoke for him and his intentions, until those messages were warped to better fit either side's agenda.
I also think it's pretty obvious that they're supposed to take the place of the horrorterrors' whispers and Skaia's prophecies respectively, as far as Game systems go. But I'm pointing it out anyway.
No more fishies :(
Me and Xam teamed up to design all of the different chess guy variants you can see during this sequence, which was a lot of fun because I LOVE any and all chances I get to do concept work. Definitely was channeling some Hollow Knight for the big ones with the spears, and I believe Xam based those elephants on a specific chess piece called the alfil, which showed up in certain regional/historical variations of the game before being replaced by the bishop in standard chess. Neat!
EE's looking pleased as punch about the brutal murder she just committed here. Good for her.
Less good for poor VP, alas.
Remember kids: war is bad and destroys your planet!
In come those Pesky Shufflers, here to ruin everyone's day, just when they had all STARTED to get along. Boo!
AUSTIN: At this time, the Dead Shufflers were still acting as the Queen's personal mercenary squad, similarly to the role they had in Homestuck proper. I mean, so was EE, but Jack was like, her guy.
Her personal guy.
AUSTIN: They were also originally designed to have way less classy outfits [by Austin, in fact!], more of a modern militia vibe, but we changed that after the first pass to fit better with the looks everyone else had going on. 
Seems like a bit of an overkill, but alright.
At last... the reveal of White Noise's Epic True Furry Form. The family resemblance really is striking. He has his Mother's eyes.
We were worried he wouldn't be easily identifiable in this sinister silhouetted getup, so we slapped the Green Sun necklace on him as a compromise. Still remember some people being a little confused, though. Oh well!
Scribe's doing what a Scribe's gotta do. Which in this case is putting all of his little guys on moon timeout, permanently. What a sentimental game master.
And thus, we have the full backstory of how Derse and Prospit came to be. Hooray!
Back in the present, things seem to be just as heated as before. The vibes are downright confrontational. So, let's take our readerly gaze somewhere else while these folks calm down.
It's Jentha time, baby!!!!!!
Austin had teased the absolutely nuclear proportions of Jentha's backstory many times before, and boy do we finally bring it to the bank here. This is now a Jentha Only Zone. Full Jentha lockdown for several months. Everything the fandom had been asking for and later complained about.
Introducing...
The Land of Tall Grass and Sunflowers. Yes it's supposed to be LOTGAS. Take it up with Mr. Ado.
AUSTIN: LOTGAS (the worst land acronym ever, but perhaps a necessary evil to show it as a dead end) is heavily inspired by the sunflower fields level from Mother 3. I'm sure you could make assumptions about what that means on a thematic level, but keep it in your back pocket for now. There's a lot of elements of The Game that are tied to it. Putting references to the Mother series in your webcomic is just as natural as putting them in your quirky RPG, especially when we're planning to mess with that format later.
Well said. Also, doesn't it look gorgeous?
And here we add another he/she/they to our gender banks.
I'm going to state the obvious: Af is so cute and also I love her. Once again major kudos to Tyson's animation wizardry for making them pop out of that flower so delightfully!
It's hot nonbinary shapeshifter entity summer!
The "jitterbug" nickname Af uses for Jentha is a nod to one of her tracks from Volume 3, which in turn is a nod to the fact that Jentha used to be called Jitterbug in an earlier draft of Vast Error, many years ago. I thought it was too good to pass up on in-comic canonization, so I suggested we add it as a little characterization point for Af.
Speaking of that newt-looking bastard, one of Austin's writing signposts when figuring out their voice was (drum roll)... Vriska Serket, the queen of discourse and beloved spidergirl herself! Most of the denizens take inspiration from a specific Homestuck counterpart that shares their aspect, just as an initial starting point for speech patterns and general vibe. I think you can all guess where the inspiration for our good friend Zehanpuryu comes from (it's June).
Man, Jentha sure seems put off when confronted with a reflection of her physical form, huh?
Huge fan of Af's expressions here. He's so smug.
Woah what's this??? Flashback time... 2!
We're gonna be here for a while.
Oh God it's peepaw again.
We ended up adding an extra panel to the final lineup in an extremely last minute decision, because the transition felt jarring with the way we wanted to break down the Principal and the Executive's dialogue. Xam coming in clutch again, shout outs to them.
Fun fact, Jentha's ancestor didn't have a proper title or a name until literally this update. It took a while to brainstorm it but we ended up landing on Mosura as cool nod to everyone's favorite giant bug, Mothra — idea courtesy of Charlie's huge brain. Teamwork!
This is also our first look at some of the cast in Baby Mode, of which there will be plenty during this sequence, and confirmation that Arcjec and Ellsee are the babiest of them all (by a couple of months, in case you were curious). Also that Murrit is an old coot. What are you, two?
Let's see, what else... Oh yeah, I guess Repiton is going through a horrible slo-mo economic collapse as younger trolls are left scrambling to provide any financial security to their hypothetical descendants. Business as usual.
They put her back in her tube!!!
Jeez, Clarud, you love a dramatic monologue, we get it already.
In all fairness to Junnos, I would also be scared of an unstable radioactive baby if I was locked up in an underground facility with them, no matter how adorable and non-threatening they looked.
This is the last batch of storyboards Xam worked on before we decided to pass those duties along to the rest of the team. Look forward to seeing different folks featured in the BTS content from this point forward! Variety is the spice of life, etc.
Not a lot of ways to pass the time when you've been locked inside a tiny little room your whole life. Toys and movies were Jentha's only friends for a good while.
Seems like Junnos is feeling bad about keeping her in this situation. Go figure!
Hey, I recognize those sigils!
The rumors are true: trans people real. We're pretty proud of the way we ended up redacting Albion and Dismas' deadnames with the scrambled text — implemented by our webmaster, Kohi. It's an elegant solution that also doubles as a thematic tie to Vast Error's penchant for obfuscation and visual fuckery. And this is the power of webcomics.
Wait, who's that in the background? Is that— nope. We're not talking about that guy right now, moving on.
A shocking twist: Albion's had a Little Miss Perfect complex from the tender age of four. She really is just like that in her natural state.
Froggy chair.
And thus, the Principal sets a whole bunch of shit into motion. No ulterior motives here, they really did just want Jentha to make an actual friend. Well, they did also happen to pick a fellow Aspect Holder for that purpose, but that was more just an opportunity presenting itself than anything else.
What can be said of this conversation? I think it's the most teeth-rottingly sweet exchange we've had in the whole comic so far. We get a bit of background on how the repitonian schooling system works, with classes divided by groups of adjacent blood shades on top of the students' ages, and are introduced to Jentha's unfailing trans radar which tells her when a name SUCKS. Dismas doesn't know it yet, but you CAN just pick a new one if you don't like yours!
To everyone not fluent in furbish, I've been informed toh-loo-kah means "just like me". Yeowch!
Literally no one has ever looked this happy about being punched in the face twice.
Welp, seems like Dismas' crafty little plan didn't shake out the way he was expecting. Time to come up with a new, even craftier plan! The commitment to what he feels is true and just is very Mind-y of him, along with the dogged perseverance to see it through.
Part of the best friend contract is, as we all know, being dragged into zany schemes against your will.
This flashback is obviously Jentha-centric, but we also get a good serving of these other little guys. I think Dismas' childhood behavior is interesting when contrasted to his present one, especially when it comes to the friendly take-charge attitude we see here. Nowadays, he's much more inwardly focused and dour, though we've seen glimpses of this soft mushy center shining through. Maybe he's gonna bring that back a little now that his murder-revenge quest is a bust? Only time will tell.
And as for Albion, well. She sure used to be way less concerned with putting up an impregnable placid front of pure emotional stability and quote-unquote perfection. Look at those comfy pants! You think anyone in a pair of those is worried about what other people think??? No sir. I think she should learn how to chill again.
Uh oh.
And thus, their daring escape begins.
I remember me and Austin went back and forth for quite a while trying to figure out the exact sequence of events here. How in the world would these two baby children manage to get inside a highly secure, off-limits portion of the school in a way that felt plausible? It turns out that the solution was Albion getting a brain fax from old Guardianspirit, all the way from the inside the Cell. Remember that guy? They haven't met at this point yet, but the Vast Hopeness of their combined multiple souls is enough to connect with little Albion, the Hero of Hope.
That's the good thing about giving like 80% of your cast an array of insane powers and various other OP connections: you can just deploy this shit to get you out of a writing pickle. No one will ever know about your behind-the-scenes ass pulls.
(Except for you guys. Shhhhh.)
The unfailing trans radar makes an appearance again.
After a successful friend-heist, Jentha is absolutely fascinated by the playroom, which is as sweet as it is heartbreaking. The poor girl's never seen a room this big! What a travesty.
Of course, things had been going a little too well for our intrepid curfew-breakers. Enter...
Motherfucker unlimited.
And with that, we have OFFICIALLY MADE IT to the end of this ridiculously overdue devlog! Go us.
Whew. So, how are we feeling? I definitely ran my mouth a bit, but you know what? I had fun! And I had things to say. Turns out my real vocation has been talking about Vast Error and running a Patreon all along, go figure. You guys can look forward to this sort of write-up from the comic dev posts from now on, which is... wordier than I expected! And thus a plus for you, dear reader. Don't worry, we'll scale back if it starts getting overwhelming again.
The current game plan is to handle the backlog in bursts of two month's worth of content until we catch up with the comic, at which point we'll switch to write ups on a monthly basis. This means that the next comic devlog (coming to your screens in July) will feature the updates from January + February, and so on and so forth. Austin liked to let them build up and then make huge posts, but guess what? He's not writing these anymore. Take that, Austin! I make the rules now!!!
I really hope you guys enjoyed this. Don't want to jinx it, but I've got a good feeling about our new setup. :)
Keep it unreal!
- Eddie
