by marathemara



The Land of Heat and Clockwork (hereafter LOHAC) is Dave’s planet. In spite of its eponymous heat, it’s a pretty cool place: oceans of lava, islands made of gears and moderately post-apocalyptic scaffolding, chatty crocodile consorts…But LOHAC isn’t all aesthetic. Quite a few important things happen there.

First, there’s the reason LOHAC exists. It’s a Time Player’s planet, so it has to have a Scratch Construct–some huge structure that has to be broken in order to Scratch the session. In LOHAC’s case, this is the Beat Mesa, a huge island in the middle of the lava ocean which looks like the record on Dave’s shirt. The Beat Mesa is where almost all the big events on LOHAC happen–where Dave’s Bro and Davesprite first fight Jack Noir; where Rose retreats with her Complacency before going grimdark; and where the Scratch is eventually performed, releasing the temporal energy needed to reset the Game.



The other important place on LOHAC is the Land of Heat and Clockwork Stock Exchange. We have no idea why the LOHACSE exists–there don’t seem to be any businesses on LOHAC, and the consorts fit the stereotypical profile of ugga-bugga natives, trying to cook Dave in a stewpot, and being unnecessarily fascinated by his technology.

[nak nak nak my glasses are talking to me]

But it’s a good thing LOHACSE is there, because that’s how Dave gets in touch with the trolls after Terezi receives a wire transfer of a lot of money which Dave is going to send her in his future. She traces the wire back to Dave and instructs him in the time-traveling financial wizardry needed to turn one boonbuck into four hundred and thirteen boonbonds. That fantastic sum does nothing more than draw Terezi’s attention to Dave, but considering that she found him adorable from the very beginning, and then ended up dating him, it was still a pretty significant moment. (I wonder whether she thought she’d gotten her money’s worth?)



[Mr. Appleberry Blast needs to step off. This kid is yours to mess with. You smelled him first!]

All in all, even though we see more of John’s planet and never find out what Dave’s personal quest is, LOHAC is where the most stuff happens. I guess it’s ironic, just like Dave himself, how cool of a place the Land of Heat and Clockwork really is.