Trickster Mode

The name Trickster Mode is shared by two different but related concepts that involve the narrative of Homestuck being altered in silly and unpredictable ways.

In both cases, Trickster Mode has become associated with certain alterations in the physical appearance of human characters: their entire color scheme is altered to give them brightly-colored hair and clothes, some sort of object (usually a candy, dessert, or fruit item) is stuck in their hair, and their color-devoid aracial skin tone is changed to caucasian a peachy color. Instead of their associated color being seen on the symbol on their clothing it is noticeable on their bulging eyes and spirals on their cheeks like those on cherubs. Trickster Mode seems (kinda obviously, given its origin) to have a connection to the cherubs and their folklore.
 * Out of canon, it refers to an Easter egg available during a few of the interactive Flash animations that were programmed by Alexis 'Gankro' Beingessner. Several assets are swapped in Trickster Mode, such as swapping John Egbert for something generally foolish, and hidden locations can sometimes be accessed.
 * In canon, it refers to a powerup acquired by licking the spiral sucker juju created by the fusion of Calliope and Caliborn's individual jujus. Characters in Trickster Mode become disturbingly cheerful and have access to powers that alter reality in a surreal manner.

In-canon powerup
The idea of Trickster Mode appearing in canon was first alluded to in Act 6 Act 3. In that act, Calliope drew depicting Roxy as a Trickster and HS 6990 (sent her) a link to it. In the drawing, she is licking a spiral sucker, hinting at its future appearance and role in the story.

The powerup was formally introduced in Act 6 Act 5 Act 1, when Jane alchemizes Calliope and Caliborn's jujus and inadvertently creates the spiral sucker. The sucker's enchantments compel her to lick it, engaging her Trickster Mode. She uses her new power to release a wave of energy that resurrects the dead plant life on half of LOCAH while simultaneously killing the skeletal underlings that reside there, causing them to drop Zillium instead of their normal grist drops. She then blasts off and leaves LOCAH.

After leaving, she enters a strange landscape where she turns Horrorterrors into Squiddles and cherubs into Lil Cals. She then travels to LOMAX and tells Jake that she loves him before kicking him in the groin. This causes Jake's own Trickster Mode to be engaged, and he announces that he wants to romance and marry Jane - but not before they go on an adventure. Taking a wholly unwilling Erisolsprite with them, the two travel to Derse and try to find Roxy.

Trickster Mode has apparently given Jake the power to HS 7634 (summon) a Pumpkin which can convert other people into Trickster Mode, and he and Jane have also gained some sort of HS 7635 (ability to see) HS 7636 (the unseeable.) (They can also fly, but at this point, who's counting?)

Jane and Jake finally find and capture Roxy on Derse, use the pumpkin on her, and thus engage her Trickster Mode. The three have an episode of ecstatic, flailing dancing-- a manner of doing which seems typical of characters in Trickster Mode.

After another mediumbound trip to LOTAK and some drunken harassment, Roxy smooches Dirk into Trickster mode as well. However, the silly properties fail to affect him, as his HS 7659 (animation) reveals.

Eventually Jane snaps from Trickster Mode while in the center of Prospit's moon shaking from what appears to be withdrawal.

Accessing Trickster Mode
Make sure the interactive Flash has focus (click on it). On Windows and Linux, press Ctrl + T. On Mac OS X, press ⌘+ T. If attempting this opens a new tab in your browser, press Ctrl + Alt + T or ⌘+ Alt + T instead (respectively). Ctrl + T also works under Mac OS X for the most recent interactive segments (starting with Alterniabound). If you are on a Google Chromebook, press Ctrl+Alt+Shift+T. If none of these commands work, try Ctrl + Alt + T or Shift + T.

On Mac OSX, Trickster mode can be accessed on Google Chrome by pressing Ctrl + T. It does however work in Windows, provided you have clicked within the flash window first. Firefox is the best browser to use for Trickster mode. It can be accessed on Google Chrome in Windows by pressing Ctrl + Alt + T.

Trickster mode can also be deactivated with the same key combination. However, deactivating Trickster Mode while in an impossible location, such as Problem Sleuth's office or while on a wall, can crash your browser.

[S] YOU THERE. BOY.[[HS 2153]]
Upon entering Trickster Mode, the Kernelsprite is swapped for the floating head of Andrew Hussie and John colorized with blonde hair (which also has a lollipop stuck to it.) John himself is placed under the floor and is blurred from view. The background music is also changed to &quot;Harlequin&quot;.

Free exploration is allowed in this Trickster Mode. Hidden in the Backyard is access to the Problem Sleuth's office (which can be accessed via the chimney) as well as a window with a pumpkin spray painted beneath it. There is also a notice in the top right corner which reads "Gankro Was Not Here", which is upside-down. In the grass by this window is the "Trickster Code" written in Morse Code. Attempting to switch back to regular mode inside Problem Sleuth's office wall will sometimes freeze your browser (this glitch may have been fixed. in some cases, it is fixed, but if you are in a wall in the office & switch back, you will probably freeze)

On a side note, If you exit Trickster mode while in free exploration mode and then press the esc button it causes John to disappear and the music to loop over itself infinitely. However, as soon as you leave the area the glitch fixed itself.

Dave's Phat Beat Machine[[HS 2238]]
This isn't a trickster mode, but If you press the beats from each end of the turntable at the 4 corners, 4 mystery beats would come up: Harlequin, the Captain Planet theme, the Ghostbusters theme song and "I Don't Want To Miss A Thing" by Aerosmith. However, these music clips were hotlinked from external websites, and as of February 2012, the Captain Planet clip and Aerosmith clip were deleted by their hosts and are no longer available via the easter egg.

Shale Imp Strife[[HS 2297]]
When accessing Trickster Mode, a prompt will appear for the "Trickster Code." The Trickster Code is 024913, translated from Morse Code in the previous Trickster Mode. It is also the code for the safe in the Study. Upon entering Trickster Mode, John dons a Link attire complete with the Master Sword and Hylian Shield. A Kernelsprite also appears, who looks similar to Guru-Guru, the man in the Kakariko Windmill. The Shale Imp is exchanged for a recursive John monstrosity, a "Johnstrosity", if you will.

Upon weakening the monstrosity, John and the Shale Imp revert back to their original assets. The Windmill Hut Kernelsprite remains however.

Land of Wind and Shade (Act 4)[[HS 3258]]
It is not actually possible to enter Trickster Mode in this segment, but attempting to do so will elicit a reaction from John.

Alterniabound[[HS 4692]]
When activated in Alterniabound, Trickster Mode will cause a picture of a strange female John to appear (a John version of Vriska), and a variant of Totaka's Song will start to play. The active character will then be transported with a Chrono Trigger "Gate" effect to the Jidoor Relic shop (from Final Fantasy VI). Ness, Paula, Jeff, and Poo from Earthbound are at the side and Gamzee is dancing behind the counter of the shop. Interacting with Gamzee activates a sound test mode that allows one to hear twelve songs, including some used directly in the flash and others added only as a special feature. After leaving the room, the characters will continue to be transported with the Chrono Trigger gate effect whenever they use a Transportalizer. Activating Trickster Mode again will undo this effect.

[S] John: Enter village[[HS 4979]]
When activated in the mushroom farm area, a prompt with the phrase "pap:nak ::" appears. If one correctly finishes the analogy with "shoosh:doof", John mystically turns into Dave, drawn in the style of pixel artist Paul Robertson. Holding down the spacebar fills up his "Mangrit Vial." When the spacebar is released, Dave performs an attack which can be used to temporarily trap the imp in time. Press the Trickster Mode key combination again to go back to being John. Leaving the area will also let you be John again, but upon returning to it he will still be Dave until the mode is deactivated.

[S] Kanaya: Return to the core[[HS 5221]]
Similar to Alterniabound, pressing Ctrl+T teleportalizes you to exactly the same room, only with Sollux standing around thrusting in his battle animation(from the same flash) instead of Gamzee dancing. In addition he only has one song, Heir Conditioning. The NPCs in the area complain about only having one song, and miss the clown. Pressing Ctrl+T teleportalizes you back to the game, with the music for whatever character you were.

There is, however, a quick, easy-to-perform glitch that can allow you to walk around the lab with Heir Conditioning playing in the background instead of the character's song. You start by transportalizing your character into the secret room. Walk up to the Sollux behind the counter. Press space to open up the music menu. With the menu still open, press Ctrl+T. Your character should transportalize back to the lab, with the menu still visible. Select the song. Every now and then, this glitch fails to work, usually due to pressing the space bar too soon after pressing Ctrl+T. The music will revert back to character's original music if you switch characters, in which case you will have to repeat the 5-second process all over.

The NPC's appear to be a reference to the game Earthbound. They represent the 4 main protagonists of the game, Ness, Paula, Jeff, and Prince Poo.

[S] Equius: Seek the highb100d[[HS 5338]]
It is not actually possible to enter Trickster Mode in this segment, but attempting to do so will cause a box that reads "nope fuck this I don't care" to appear. The command subsequently does not work in the following exploration-style flash, although the room still exists within the flash file.

[S] Terezi: Read Note[[HS 5618]]
There isn't actually a trickster mode in this flash file (that is known, anyway.) However, in this flash, Terezi falls through a trap door and lands in the FF6 shop, and a mashup of music from Secret of Mana and Chrono Trigger begins to play. The room apparently exists in canon. It is worth noting, however, that the duration of Terezi's time within the room took place precisely between the end of Disc 1 and the beginning of Disc 2.

Known Trickster Modes
HS 2153 (The Medium)

HS 2297 (Shale Imp Strife)

HS 3258 (Land of Wind and Shade)

HS 4692 (Alterniabound)

HS 4979

HS 5221

HS 5338

Trivia

 * According to Hussie's tweet, "all characters in trickster mode are Canonically Caucasian."
 * Jane originally brought this up when "trickstering" Jake. However, there was a retroactive change and Jane now says "PEACHY!" instead of "CAUCASIAN!".
 * This is the the second time the comic has been retroactively changed to adhere to Hussie's policy of racial ambiguity.
 * In Trickster mode, Jane's pesterlogs change to Tricksterlogs. Tricksterlogs allow characters to engage in onscreen conversation without requiring the presence of a sprite or the "Gift of Gab" god tier merit badge.
 * Trickster mode appears to be contagious, as when Jane kicked Jake, his Trickster mode activated.
 * It appears that Trickster Mode also alters the personality of the affected person. Jane and Jake show an almost painfully forced joy and seem to be actively saying whatever they are currently thinking about. The whole thing seems to be based on the misconception that children become hyperactive when given too much sugar.
 * Somehow this doesn't apply to Dirk. As Arquiusprite puts it: [[File:Arquius shades.png]] HS 7659
 * Trickster mode has a tendency to reference 11 11 11.
 * Tricksters stretch out words or use excessive use of punctuation it is done so eleven letters/symbols each time, or alternately the number of letters necessary to bring the total in the word to 11.
 * On HS 7610 (the page before Jane's Trickster Mode was activated), there were 11 exclamation marks.
 * When Jake's Trickster Mode was activated, Jane had to find 11 clues to find Jake.
 * When Roxy's Trickster Mode activated, Jake had to tug 111 times to pull her onto the screen.
 * When Dirk's Trickster Mode was activated, he had to sidle 1111 times to escape from the other Tricksters.
 * There are also 11 characters visible in HS 7659 (Dirk's Trickster Flash): Roxy, Jake, Jane, Erisolsprite, Fefetasprite, Arquiusprite, Sawtooth, Squarewave, Gamzee, Courtyard Droll, and himself.
 * There are 11 pages between HS 7614 and the page where Jake activates his Trickster Mode.
 * All of the Alpha kids in trickster mode had swirled cheeks matching their text color, and the swirls terminate at the top and point inwards, just like Caliborn's cheek swirls before he predominated.
 * It is unknown if species other than humans are able to engage Trickster Mode, as only the Alpha Kids are seen canonically engaging Trickster Mode.