by marathemara

I hope we get to see more of Davesprite, because of all the Daves in Homestuck, he’s still my favorite. –marathemara



Nepeta deserves better. –a decent chunk of the Homestuck fandom



Occasionally something will come along in Homestuck that we didn’t know we needed until it happened. Those moments have been happening more frequently since the Gigapause: Roxy getting a hug from Jaspersprite, Dave and Dirk’s heart-to-heart (no pun intended), Jane meeting Nannasprite. But possibly the awesomest of these moments was when two awesome characters we hadn’t seen in months reappeared, met each other, shook hands–and then became one even more awesome character.

Nepeta had been dead for years. Davesprite was also dead in the New Alpha, and there was no indication that the old Davesprite had come with John to the new timeline. Neither was ever going to come back. But then hints started dropping. Jaspersprite had come across. So had Nannasprite. And if they had, so could Davesprite. Jaspersprite prototyped Roxy’s kernelsprite with Rose from the old timeline, and then with himself, making a new crafty sprite-squared with ulterior purposes for the one remaining kernelsprite. And then Terezi said it.

Nepeta fans everywhere could only hope. And for once, Hussie gave us exactly what we wanted.

And for once, Hussie gave us so much more than we had hoped for. Davepetasprite^2 is not merely a reappearance of Nepeta and/or Davesprite. They (having settled on they as the pronoun that best describes them) are a combination of Nepeta and Davesprite, in a way that has its own identity and is free of all the emotional burdens that either had alone. Davepetasprite^2 is no longer worried about not being the real Dave, nor are they willing to go along with Jasprosesprite^2’s emotional manipulation of Nepeta. They’re a new person and they’re cool with it. And oh hey, they can fly, and they can do the Wolverine claw thing. Life is good.

In contrast, here’s what happened in the old timeline. Nepeta was prototyped with Feferi. They were content to share a body as Fefetasprite, but each kept their own identity and dwelled on their own past problems. Because of this, they couldn’t handle meeting ARquiusprite and Erisolsprite, who each tried to talk to half of her, and who each thought of themselves as two people in one body. Sollux can’t have his reunion with Feferi without Eridan butting in; Equius can’t apologize to Nepeta for being unable to save her without going off topic to exclude Feferi from his apology or expressing the AR’s lack of interest in the situation. The stress is too much for poor, sweet, Fefetasprite, and she explodes. Nepeta and Feferi go back to being dead, and that’s pretty much the end of sprites interacting with each other.

This time around, Nepeta is part of a sprite that works out its own identity and goals pretty quickly. Davepetasprite^2 is happy and confident about who they are–enough so that they can continue Nepeta’s tradition of unironic roleplaying, enough to want to take on the heroic role in fighting Lord English that Dave rejected, and enough to convince Jasprosesprite^2 (who is now, sort of, Davepeta’s sister) to relax a little and stop trying to plan everything. On top of that, they are able to start the conversation with ARquiusprite this time, head off his awkward apologies, and convince him to try to be more comfortable in his own skin. Not to mention that Davepeta’s ability to calm Equius down may make them essential to fighting Lord English in their own right.

That’s it. We can all go home now. Two characters we missed and cared about are now in a place where they are happy and confident and cared for. That’s a happy ending for Homestuck. Before we go, though, does anyone have a suggestion for a ship name for ARquius <> Davepeta? Meowrails++, maybe? They’re definitely still moirails.