Station

For the station in Hiveswap: Act 2, see train station.

The inside of WV's Sburb station.

Among the multitudinous meteors that fall to a planet's surface during the Reckoning, some contain the seeds of stations for use by the carapacians exiled there.

Concept and creation

The meteors that fall directly upon the Heroes' houses all contain stations reminiscent of the cruxite item that Hero used to enter the Medium; e.g, John Egbert entered the game with an apple and an immense tree-shaped building grew from where his house once was, dropping a fruit-shaped station. This similarity in shape may have been a late addition to the comic; the entrance to the Wayward Vagabond's station was initially a square or cuboid shape^[image?] before being updated to the circular cork shape it subsequently appeared in.

The stations associated with each session come in a matching color scheme befitting the aesthetic of that session; while B1's stations are white with a green Sburb logo, matching the game discs distributed to the players, the stations on Alternia are dark grey with a lighter grey logo. On the post-scratch Earth, the only known session was light grey with a dark grey logo. On Earth, the machinery in each station was also subtly color coded to the Hero whose former home it grew upon.

Purpose and function

As with the exiles that use them, each station's purpose appears to be twofold. The main room contains a computer terminal to observe and offer subconscious commands to the game's Heroes - just as the reader might do, and each of the station's other rooms seems to contain another technologically advanced piece of machinery broadly along the lines of appearifiers and sendificators.

Each station is also fully capable of movement, allowing exiles to travel the post-apocalyptic planet and rendezvous with each other.

Computer terminal

Each station's computer terminal allows the exile using it to gently guide the Heroes through their quests as the player of an adventure game would, via a command prompt-style text input and a Mac-style keyboard with a familiar ==> key for entering commands - as such, they are occasionally called command stations. Each terminal is generally only used to communicate with one Hero, that being the Hero whose server player once lived where the station originated: which is to say, while the Wayward Vagabond's station was shaped like part of a bottle and located on the former Lalonde property, it was primarily used to communicate with John, and so on down the server/client chain.

In addition to controlling Sburb characters, the computer's command input can also be used to control the functions of the computer itself and various other parts of the station in a manner similar to a . The screens on each terminal match the number of Heroes in a session - four each for the humans and twelve each for the trolls - and by typing the command => SWITCH (screen #) the user can change which Hero's adventures they can observe. In some cases, a given station will be locked out of being able to properly command a different Hero;, however, either some stations lack some of these restrictions, or other screens can somehow be unlocked over time. The command => HOME activates all of the screens together.

Turning off caps lock on the terminal's keyboard - or rather unlocking caps - unlocks a container located to the right of the station's power source, while locking caps will re-seal the container and also lock the base entrance, sealing the occupant inside;^{[citation needed]} the esc (or escape) key unlocks it again. The tab key opens the second container, located to the left of the power source.

Other machinery

The exact intended use of the station's additional machinery is not clear; Terezi Pyrope hypothesizes that “L1TTL3 TH1NGS [...] 4CT1ONS TH4T COMPL3T3 LOOPS 1N TH3 T1M3L1NE” are the exiles' most important role, and the Wayward Vagabond and Peregrine Mendicant's use of their teleportation machines matches this description closely. However, Terezi also states that “TO R3BU1LD L1F3 4ND C1V1L1Z4T1ON” is another of the exiles' important jobs, so these may also serve terraforming functions. Notably, an appearifier is also an important part of ectobiology, and many other meteors in the Veil are known to include ectobiology equipment; the Credits depict carapacians overseeing the ectobiological repopulation of Earth C, hinting at another intended use of these stations by the exiles.

Terezi also suggests that “1F TH3YR3 SUCC3SSFUL 1N THOUS4NDS OR M1LL1ONS OF Y34RS TH3 T3CHNOLOGY 1S UN34RTH3D 4ND TH3 PL4N3T 1S R1P3 FOR S33D1NG 4LL OV3R 4G41N”, implying that companies like Skaianet may acquire their advanced technology from stations that landed on their planet in the distant past.

Known stations

Earth

Cork station

Main article: Skyship Base

This station is composed of two pieces, a bottle and a cork, à la Rose Lalonde's Cruxite Bottle. It was discovered by the Wayward Vagabond at the former site of her house in 2422 after the crater there had filled with sand. The bottle part of the station appears to simply be a launching mechanism for the cork part which serves as the actual station. The computer terminal contained within it is used to communicate with and direct John Egbert.

After the cork is ejected from the bottle it flies to Jade's island, propelled by four rockets on its bottom.

Apple station

Main article: Helipod Base

This station is in the shape of an apple. John Egbert creates this base after he uses the Cruxite Apple to transport his house to the Medium.

• It is uncovered by the Peregrine Mendicant in 2422 lying sideways on the sand that had filled the crater created by John's Meteor.
• It is created from a tree that grows out of the ground where the meteor hit. The tree grows leaves, sprouts the station, and then dies.
• This station flies with a helicopter-like set of blades.

Egg station

Main article: Eggy-Looking Base

This station is shaped like an egg. It appeared in the air above Wayward Vagabond and Aimless Renegade after the construction of Exile Town. The fourth exile, the Windswept Questant, found this base sliced in half and repaired it with her Spirograph Key.

Bec station

Main article: Bec Head Base

This station is shaped like Becquerel's head. The Windswept Questant reformed it using a Spirograph Key into a panel she uncovered containing the controls to reform it. The Aimless Renegade uses this base to communicate with and direct Dave Strider.

Post-scratch

Caliborn's Sburb station.

During A6A6, Caliborn is seen in a room resembling the interior of Wayward Vagabond's Skyship Base. The terminal has a single screen. He appears to have locked himself inside, likely inadvertently by pressing the caps lock key, just as WV had. From the outside, it is shaped like Lil Cal's head. Two spirograph logos replace the cheeks, and in the middle of the forehead is a gray Sburb logo, a single solid house shape. Presumably, this is the logo for dead sessions. This station is unique in being the only one to appear on a session planet - the Land of Colours and Mayhem. Although it's unclear where the station came from, its presence is likely due to the fact that the planet was originally Future post-scratch Earth.

Alternia

The objects the trolls used to enter the Medium are never seen, and only a small amount is known about Alternia's exile stations; however, the known details seem to imply they are shaped after each troll's lusus. Snowman communicates with Vriska Serket and Terezi Pyrope from a station shaped like a mother grub's skull, suitably located where Vriska's server player Kanaya Maryam once lived and entered through one open eye socket; Clubs Deuce, meanwhile, briefly communicated with Sollux Captor from a vaguely crab-shaped station - no doubt located in what was once Karkat Vantas' neighborhood - before psychic backlash destroyed the computer terminal. While CD's base has three pairs of legs and can stand and presumably walk across the Alternian desert, what other machinery or modes of transport were included in either of these stations is also not known.

While never seen from the outside, Diamonds Droog's station was used to communicate with Aradia Megido, and was as such probably shaped like something to do with a cat: because Hearts Boxcars communicated with Tavros Nitram, his station may have been something spider-related.

Most mysteriously of all, Spades Slick's station was in fact the true identity of Lord English's treasure, with the Felt's mansion having been built over the top of it. Terezi being Karkat Vantas' server player, it could have been something egg or dragon shaped.