Wayward Vagabond

The Wayward Vagabond is a mysterious wanderer who exists 'years in the future, but not many' - in 2422, in fact. Prior to becoming an Exile, he was a dersite pawn known as the Warweary Villein. He became a playable character during Act 2. Like all other Exiles, he lacks a Sylladex and simply picks up objects when told so without further complication. Though this severely limits his inventory capacity - to the number of things he could reasonably carry - it also means he isn't prone to Fetch Modus-related shenanigans.

"Villein" is an obscure word designating a feudal tenant, a term reasonably consistent with his status before rising up against Derse.

As Warweary Villein
The Warweary Villein was WV's name while he still lived in the medium. Once a part of the army of Derse on Skaia, he resigned from the war to work as a simple farmer, and used his uniform as part of a scarecrow. Already frustrated with the endless warring, he turns to blame the Black King after his crops are destroyed by fire. He stands up against the tyranny of war, uniting the pawns of Prospit and Derse in a revolution against their monarchs. However, as the rebellion is cornering the Black King, Jack Noir soars in to assassinate the distracted monarch (the scarecrow was ineffective). The Warweary Villein seethes in anger as Jack coronates himself.

The Warweary Villein then watches as Jack Noir slaughters all of his troops, irrespective of color, leaving just him standing there, traumatized, as Jack makes havoc on The Battlefield, before causing part of Prospit to fall to the planet. To date, no reason has been given as to why Jack spared WV, other than "only he knows". The possibilities that it could have been to leave a witness to his power or that it was out of respect for a fellow mutineer were put forward in the recap.

While wandering The Battlefield, he discovers the White Queen's Ring floating through some water. And some time later, he sees Dream John on his Quest Bed changing into the Heir of Breath John. He then begins traveling with John across Skaia.

In the future, some time after Jade enters The Medium, he will be exiled to Earth and become known as the Wayward Vagabond. To differentiate commands between his future self, his commands begin with "WV?"

As Wayward Vagabond
The Vagabond is an exile wandering through the desert of the post-apocalyptic world. He stumbled upon a mysterious construct bearing the Sburb logo at the ruins of Rose's House. Opening the hatch, he descended into a derelict Underground Base. It contained a computer depicting John Egbert back in the story's present day which allowed him to command John.

As a Dersite his skin is actually a "rigid carapace", and he has four pointy fingers. His face has HS 2655 (two) ogling eyes, and blunt teeth like "that of livestock". His body is wrapped in what appear to be bandages or rags, which seem to be Dream John's bedsheets, extremely worn and dirtied after several years. To say nothing of the Vagabond's initial rudeness quite uncharacteristic of the other ogler in the MSPA multiverse, and the necessity of an instructive text to imbue him with proper manners.

On his left wrist is a bar code pattern that he would rather not think about, marking him as a citizen of Derse. As he is wandering a barren wastleand, he is incredibly hungry, and will immediately devour any food, food-like substances, or green objects he can find.

He later gets to know PM, AR and WQ and befriends them. Some time afterwards he gets locked in his base and watches how John gets killed by Bec Noir in the present. Afterwards, his screen goes black.

Personality
Initially, the Vagabond was rather rude, typing in all capitals, repeatedly referring to John as 'boy,' getting angry at Rose for losing her connection while moving the car, etc. However after a flamewar an argument with John caused the Vagabond to switch off his caps lock accidentally, a compartment opened in the Vagabond's room, releasing a book on human etiquette which he seems to have taken to heart (or stomach). Whether he is rude or polite, the Vagabond has a habit of barraging John with suggestions which causes John to zone out, much to the ire of Rose.

WV shows perfectionist tendencies. He is constantly HS 2646 (smacking himself for doing stupid things) and lashing verbally at John and Rose when they make mistakes. He also likes soda, specifically Tab, and flipped the fuck out in joy after discovering a stash of it within the base. He also displays a fondness for cookies and seems unable to understand how anybody else could fail to share this love, HS 2330 (COMMANDING) John to retreive the cookies Nannasprite prepared and insulting him when he fails to do so.

The Vagabond appears to be intelligent despite the lack of etiquette; he knew how to operate a computer from the get-go, trumps the player's initial suggestion of retrieving one's arms by HS 2567 (interrupting the command) to point out that he had them already, figured that the Underground Base runs on nuclear power from the atom diagram on the power cell, and knew that his knife is actually a flag from a mailbox. He also appears to understand Morse Code, as this is the means by which Serenity communicates with him. He also has HS 2643 (an uncanny knack) for tracking precise distances he has already traversed, evidenced by his proficiency with selecting items to be appearified on the appearifier using coordinate and elevation dials on the machine. He makes no mistakes whatsoever while doing so, except when he tried to appearify a pumpkin he had previously already eaten, which would have created a paradox.

The Vagabond has a deep, intense hatred for Kings, who he sees as bossy tyrants, stemming from his past as the Warweary Villein. Instead of royalty, he likes the concept of democratically elected mayors, to the point of building 'Can Town,' a town made out of cans of food, and pretending to be its mayor. He sets the cans in a "military training" session that is remarkably like a game of chess, for four hours and nine minutes. (It is interesting to note that all his activities within the station seem to mirror various prophecies within the story, such as how "black defeats white" in his game of chess, and the uncanny correlation between his seemingly random city backdrops and actual planets within the story and their positions in the universe.) However, this could simply indicate a lack of creativity on the Vagabond's part, seeing as all this would technically be history to him.

While the Vagabond hates Kings, he is quite reverent and respectful of the Windswept Questant, aka the White Queen. He and the Aimless Renegade quickly craft a crown to gift her upon sight. Although it is more likely that neither AR nor WV know who she really is, but are simply trying to impress her because "damn, she FINE."

Role
Using the keyboard of the computer, the Vagabond is able to send commands to John. Though John usually does what the Vagabond suggests, he will refuse to do anything he finds personally distasteful, just like when he is being controlled by the suggestion box. He does not seem to understand the significance of being able to command John, nor does he show much interest in doing so. Three other, corresponding control stations offer the ability to control the other three kids; each one seems to have the ability to monitor all of the players, though.

The Vagabond has "an uncanny knack for tracking precise distances." This talent, along with a meter stick giving him a frame of reference, allows the Vagabond to make good use of the appearifier in the base, which can transport any object from anywhere - and possibly anytime - on Earth to the second room in the base, as long as the user knows exactly where and when the object is.

After arriving at the ruins of Jade's Island, he helps the Peregrine Mendicant deliver John's package to Jade. He befriends her and the Aimless Renegade, and shows her his drawings and the computer in the base. He sets up Can Town outside, and AR sets up his bullet soldiers to defend it.

The Windswept Questant has stated that a Wastlandic Vindicator will confront the Slayer using the weapon he protects. It has been subtly implied that the Vagabond even has a secondary source for the guardian prototyped power should the Green Sun be destroyed. Uranium is associated with guardians (Post-Bec protyped imps have been seen to drop it). While in his station, the Vagabond HS 02589 (ATE) a nugget of uranium, which still resides in his stomach. At the last time we saw him he has had a nightmare. In his dream he is a mayor but turns into Jack Noir.

WV's Base
Oddly enough, the room the Vagabond begins in seems to be a metaphor for the situation the Homestuck Kids are in, back in 2009. This includes the planets he draws on the wall in addition to some of the actions he does in the room.

In the game he plays, Black prevails in the end, via the Black Queen, as in the battle between Light and Dark that Nannaquin describes to John.

The drawings on his wall approximate a viewpoint from within Skaia, his former home as the Warweary Villein. Prospit, and Derse are visible through the clouds, along with LOWAS, LOLAR, LOHAC, and LOFAF, in right-to-left order. LOFAF is drawn with the forge erupting. This was probably a weird subconscious foreshadowing thing.

The Dark and Light planets on the opposite walls represent Derse and Prospit, and their moons.

When the Vagabond presses tab on his keyboard, a picture of a planet representing Prospit falls on the floor and the TaB cans come out. This mirrors Prospit's moon falling onto The Battlefield and Dream John and Dream Jade entering. It's also notable that both the TaB cans and Dream Rose and Dave (strangely not Jade and John, but that is related to the color of the planets they are in) are covered in pink.

The TaB can explosion after the chess game the Vagabond plays could be seen as Dream Jade's death. The Vagabond seems to "mourn the loss of the citizen tab", while the Grandpa does the same with Jade.

The Vagabond seems to "decide" how the planets look like and if they have any moons. They come to be exact replicas of the four planets, Prospit, and Derse because WV originally comes from Skaia. He recreates the world he knows, either from his memories or due to some subconscious knowledge he has as a game construct.