In case you missed it

First ten chapters of A Lullaby for Gods is done, so I thought I'd list down a few things about the first part of the story, what you might have missed, and a few hints that you should take note of.

• The hot gum scene in the first chapter was inspired from a thing that happened in my childhood - a friend put a piece of gum (chewed up already, ew) on a piece of hot metal so that it would melt. They scraped the melting gum off with another metal rod and then proceeded to swipe it on the hair of another friend, claiming that gum was harder to remove if it was hot and melting.

• Loki injured his head and broke his bones when he first fell to earth. While Jotun anatomy is certainly sturdier than humans', healing still would have taken time. The reason for Loki's seemingly miraculous recovery isn't actually that miraculous, but involves Something Else.

• A reality cannot be pulled into SBURB if it does not have the game in it, even more so if it doesn't have a session in it, so in order for Lullaby'verse to be plausibly affected by SBURB and the beta kids' tendency for intersession collaboration, it has to have its own session and players (so yes, the session five players are all plot devices). Of course this means the game exists in the universe (and John Egbert has every right to be paranoid no matter what the others say).
  
  And since Homestuck features so many sessions smushed into each other, I've kept track of each session by assigning them numbers. These numbers are only for me, of course, so that I can remember which session I've brought into the story already.

List of Sessions (with corresponding number of players)

Session 1: beta kids (4)

Session 2: alternia trolls (12)

Session 3: alpha kids (4)

Session 4: beforus trolls (12)

Session 5: lullaby (8)

Session 6: cherubs (2)

Session 7: ???

Session 8: ???

whether or not session 7 and 8 will actually pick up a game is still debatable at this stage

• If the thing about godtiers being forever young is true, then it stands to reason that they would be stuck in the bodies they had when they first went godtier. It wouldn't make sense for them to age up until there twenties and just stop there without any prompting, unless of course the rules of SBURB is that you stop aging after you've beaten the game and have become gods of the new universe. However, in the comic's art (not that it's very detailed), there appears to be no indication of the children aging past godtier stage, so we're just going with the assumption that you're forever young post-godtier, and are stuck in the age you died in.

• John Egbert is depressed, in case nobody picked up on that in the comic, post-game, so it would stand that he would spiral down the same path in Lullaby'verse especially since the conditions were somehow similar. There was no big fight of course, but John's been through years of a battle and then it suddenly just stops and he doesn't know what to do now and he's just suspended - free falling; there is no battle to fight and there's nothing to conquer, and yet still the threat of SBURB coming back to haunt him stands. He hasn't even been given closure on anything. Poor kid needs a break.

• List of dogs mentioned thus far:
  
  Buster (owned by Kevin)
  
  Rover (owned by Jade)
  
  Moxie (has decided that John is a good choice for caretaker, esp. with the flying privileges)
  
  Posie (lil' chihuahua, likes to bite things; owned by Mr. G, but is fond of harassing Dave)
  
  Winston (owned by Mr. G)
  
  Fenrir the Golden Retriever (owned by Bucky Barnes)
  
  There's plenty more dogs in the Safehouse; Mr. G is their primary caretaker

• Cecil owns a cat.
  
  
  
• Loki's alias is Luke Winters, which has the appropriate number of letters for a Homestuck Kid (four for the first name, seven for the last - the only outliers are John Egbert (4-6) and Jade Harley (4-6).

• Mrs. H's full name is Elizabeth Fell Harrison. She is based off of Aziraphale from Good Omens.

• When Cecil first meets Loki and John and says,“What? No. There’s – weird timelines. Weird…experiences.”, he is seeing not only the past but also the future, which obviously involves timetravel (see Loki's recovery above) him and is brother, which is why he's incredibly weirded out.

• A list of Graham's nicknames:
  
  Mr. G
  Alexander Graham Bell / Grahambell
  Graham Crackers
  I-Am-Not-A-Psychic-For-The-Last-Goddamn-Time
  If-there's-a-Will-there's-a-Dead-Body 

• The Wikipedia page that the Palmers pulled up during the bet about the Red String was: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_string_of_fate (pretty popular legend over here and I love it so much)

• I usually just call the first four members of session 5 (Mrs. H, Mr. G, Palmer #1 and #2) the Belief Crew because Mrs. H, as a Witch of Hope,  manipulates belief; Mr. G, as an Heir of Blood, can become and manipulate connections; the Palmers are mass communication students who can use the media to their advantage, especially with Cecil's 'Briny Depths' voice.

• Phil Coulson still hasn't returned from the Carribean.

• This is a deleted scene from chapter 6:
   
  

“A phone. A fucking working phone. What the fuck.”

“Voidy powers kinda come in handy. No working phone? Bam, got one. Cellphone signal isn’t shit in the void? I’m in my element, baby. Circumvention and thriving is a beautiful thing. I got a sleek model too. I hope I can keep it.” Pause. “Where are you?”

“Fuck if I know, it’s all fucking black.”

“Shit. Anyone else with you?”

“No. Honestly, you’re the first person I’ve heard from in a while.”

“Shit. Well. This is something new. Honestly, this game has been tossing shit at us like there’s no tomorrow – which, yeah – the blankness is kinda alarming.”

“You’re telling me. Are you okay?”

“All my limbs are attached, yeah. You?”

“Yeah, I’m fine.”

“I hope the others are too. I’ve been trying to call them.”

“No answer?”

“No answer.”

“Ah, shit.”

“Word of the day.”

“Hah.”

“…what is that?”

“What?”

“That sound – there’s buzzing. Is there anything with you in there?”

“No, there’s nothing. It’s like sitting on the edge of the universe, there’s no sound and no light. I’ve been singing to myself ever since I got bored, and that happened quickly. Only light I have is my phone and when I shine it on things, there’s really nothing to shine on. Fucking poetry right there.”

“There’s buzzing. I hear buzzing. Are you sure you’re alone?”

“Yeah. I’m sure.”

“Good. I – Roxy? Roxy, are you there? Roxy? Shit. Shitfuck. Roxy! Fucking hell – ”

• The Palmers are still seventeen.
  
  
• The Pool Master (PM) is their childhood friend.
  
  
• The stapler-tossing thing between students is a personal experience. When you're hurrying for a deadline in a group project, you'd be surprised as to how well at throwing things people are - or maybe the fact that we're involved in dancing and cheerleading helps. High school experience of making costumes and props in a hurry has conditioned me to be good at throwing things. Also making sets and costumes for theater.
  
  
• Moxie's tendency to press her head against people's legs is taken from my own dog's behavior. When I don't pay attention to her, she does it, and when I still don't pay attention to her, she bites my pajamas, or my shirt (if she can reach it) and pulls.
  
  
• Jade can talk to dogs.
  
  
• For this scene:   

When Loki has to go back to work and it’s Graham’s break, the children make it known that they want more stories. Jade turns to Graham and says, “How about you, Mr. G, do you have stories?”


Loki has heard about people shutting down, but he’s never really seen people shutting down.


He laughs until he’s crying and when they get home, Graham hits him once, and he starts laughing so hard again that the children turn to each other with slightly panicked looks on their faces.

The reason Mr. G shuts down is because all of his stories are violent, being an FBI consultant and professor and all. Loki has never laughed as much as he did during this scene in the presence of the children before, so it surprises them.

• The beginning chat log in chapter 8 spells: Karkat's coming soon.
  
  
• The chat client Rose created is not called Pesterchum.
  
  
• Bucky's dissociation description is from my own mental health journals.
  
  
• Like Bucky, I used to collect dog photos to deal with stuff. Unlike Bucky, I also had photography to go with along dog photo-collecting.
  
  
• Fenrir the Golden Retriever is based off my own dog.
  
  
• True to Homestuck fashion, the first part of the fic (what passes for Act One, chaps 1 to 10) is supposed to somewhat slow and is the entire story settling and setting up. The next few parts, which I've mentally divided into acts so that I can keep track of them easily, will have their pacing depend on who I'm pulling into the story.
  
  
• Chapters 1 to 10 were written about two months before I started writing Chapters 11 onwards, so you might see a bit of difference in the voice of the story, especially since while I wrote Chapter 11 onwards, I was revising a novel that has a very different tone to Lullaby, and that tone might have bled through the fic.
  
  
• Following the chathandle pattern of homestuck, which is including the letters TCAG from DNA, the chathandles we've seen so far are:
  
  archimageChaos [AC] - Loki
  aubergineTwilight [AT] - Cecil
  abendrotTriptych [AT] - Kevin
  cannibalAmygdala [CA] - Will
  
  
• If you haven't noticed, cannibalAmygdala's typing style usually changes depending on who messaged before him.
  
  
• The handle archimageChaos is an obvious reference to Loki being a powerful seidmadr and his classpect as Mage of Space, and him being the god of chaos.
  
  
• The handle aubergineTwilight was chosen for Cecil because aubergine = purple and twilight is a precursor for night. The entire handle is a reference for Night Vale.
  
  
• The handle abendrotTriptych was chosen for Kevin because abendrot means 'sunset' - and while Kevin is usually associated with sun and light, it's also a hint to 'light players being the first to succumb to darkness'. Triptych is a reference to WTNV episode 73, Triptych, which showed three sides of Kevin from Desert Bluffs.
  
  
• The handle cannibalAmygdala is an obvious reference to NBC Hannibal. The amygdala is the part of the brain that is responsible for emotions, emotional behavior and motivation - which is something an Heir of Blood should be well-versed in. Also fear. The amygdala is associated with fear.
  
  
• In case you still need it:
  
  Cecil and Kevin Palmer are Welcome to Night Vale references.
  
  Elizabeth Fell Harrison is based off of Aziraphale from Good Omens.
  
  William Graham is a Hannibal reference.
  
  Sapphrel and Ruben are based off of several things, but they're mostly Hot Fuzz references. In one chapter, the pool master says, "What's the matter, Kevin? Never taken a shortcut before?" The police academy was also a reference. Their names are taken from OCs of that novel I said I was revising.