Vriska Serket accosted by the dead and “kind of fre8king out a8out it!”
Ghosts are a recurring motif and concept in MS Paint Adventures, particularly in Homestuck. Though most often the images of deceased characters, ghosts have also sometimes appeared as imprints of characters and objects that are doomed, absent, nonexistent or otherwise unavailable.
Ghosts in Homestuck are often associated with slime, owing to the pseudoscience of ectoplasm and its appearance in the Ghostbusters film franchise.
In Homestuck[]
The first appearance of a ghost in Homestuck is the green slime ghost on John Egbert's shirt. Both this and the matching pogo ride in the yard of his house are based on Slimer, a ghost from the Ghostbusters films. A Ghostbusters poster also appears in John's room, alongside a poster for the film Ghost Dad. John's Pesterchum handle, “ghostyTrickster”, also reflects this.
On Alternia[]
Aradia Megido is a ghost at the time of her introduction in Hivebent, characterized as such by her featureless white eyes. Though the circumstances regarding her becoming a ghost after her death are unclear, in both life and death she had the power to contact the dead, including the ability to manifest other ghosts and communicate with them through means such as her Ouija fetch modus. Sollux Captor had a similar ability to commune with the imminently deceased, and later becomes a “"HALF GHOST"” with only one white eye.
Though ghosts are prevalent throughout the story of Hivebent, it is unclear whether residents of Alternia are privy to their existence or believe them to be mythological like other undead creatures in Alternian literature; ghosts are invisible to some trolls and many of Aradia's friends were unaware that she had ever died.
In the dream bubbles[]
After death most Homestuck characters appear as ghosts in the dream bubbles. Like Aradia, ghosts in the dream bubbles are characterized by a lack of pupils or coloration in the eyes; however ghosts in the dream bubbles will not take on ghostly attributes until they realize that they are dead. The ghost of the Alternate Calliope has eyes that are pitch black rather than white.
Though only named troll, human and cherub characters involved in games of Sburb have appeared as dream bubble ghosts, carapacian characters like the Wayward Vagabond have displayed the ability to communicate with other characters in the dream bubbles in their dreams.
The only known way of destroying a ghost in the dream bubbles is through Lord English's powers - particularly his rainbow breath, which glows in the same colours “enigmatic forces presiding over all that is eternal”.
Sprites[]
- Main article: Sprite
Sprites take many design elements from ghosts in popular culture, with wispy tails in place of legs and a slimy composition also similar to that of Slimer. Having a particular attraction to the deceased or the doomed, Sprites are often often referred to as the ghosts of their constituent parts, as creating “spooky ghost cookies” and having “ghost butt(s)”. Notably, when someone becomes part of a sprite, their ghost disappears from the dream bubbles.
Paradox ghost imprints[]
Especially during the process of ectobiology, the use of an appearifier on people or objects that are unable to be appearified (such as in the circumstance where the appearification would cause a time paradox) will instead cause a slimy paradox ghost imprint of that person or object to appear. This slime contains the same genetic makeup as the original person and is essential in the creation of paradox clones.
Ghost images[]
“The back of the card does seem to contain a viable CAPTCHA CODE for a real DUTTON PHOTO, for whatever it's worth. Which is very little.”
As with an appearifier, the use of certain fetch modii such as Jade's Pictionary modus on objects that cannot properly be obtained will put a ghost image of the item into a captchalogue card in place of the actual item.
This ghost image has the same captchalogue code as the original item, and as such has many uses. Using ghost images created by the Pictionary modus, Jade was able to supply Dave with the codes for the Jumper Block Extension, Totem Lathe, Punch Designix, and Holopad, which he used to add functionality to his Alchemiter and supply the same tools to Rose. Importantly, Jade was able to acquire the code for the Holopad without expending the grist normally required to deploy it.
The Captcharoid Camera always provides a ghost image of items captured with its lens.
Brain ghosts[]
The combinations of certain powers sometimes allow ghosts to manifest as images of people who are elsewhere (or parts of them) rather than people who are dead. Jake's untapped potential has on several occasions allowed splinters of Dirk Strider to appear as independent beings capable of interacting with the living to the same extent as another living person.
In The Homestuck Epilogues (Dubiously Canon)[]
In the The Homestuck Epilogues' Candy timeline, the ghosts from the dream bubbles are able to continue existing upon being relocated to Earth C, where they are both visible and tangible to the living.