Juju

Jujus are a variety of magical objects with a complex system of rules governing their use.

Jujus lack any sort of traceable origin, and some cherubs believe they simply appear spontaneously out of nothing. Each juju exists as a single entity across all realities and cannot be copied or permanently destroyed. Should there ever appear to be two copies of one juju, one of the "copies" is either an illusion or an error that will eventually be erased from existence, or more commonly, is destined to end up becoming the other version at some later time. According to Caliborn, a juju always has an owner, and one can only take someone's juju if the original owner is killed or willingly gives it away.

During the course of the Midnight Crew Intermission, many jujus possessing varying levels of control over time had been used by members of the Felt. The Midnight Crew used a few of these items as they fought the Felt, many of which have resurfaced as memories within the dream bubbles occupied by the pre-scratch trolls for unknown reasons.

These traits are similar to the traits of objects in a bootstrap paradox, where an object travels through time from the future, to the past, thereby creating itself in an eternal cycle. Because the item is always becoming itself, it has no true or "traceable origin". This would also explain why a juju cannot be destroyed, because destroying it at any point in time would result in the juju not being able to exist in the first place so that it could be destroyed, creating a grandfather paradox, an unstable loop that would result in a doomed timeline. But the abilities of juju breakers also disputes this somewhat.

Known jujus

Lil Cal

Main article: Lil Cal

Lil Cal is the most prominent juju in the comic, a seemingly innocuous if slightly unnerving puppet that in truth is a cursed vessel of misfortune. It has been stated to exist solely to ruin the lives of those within the universe containing it. As an element of his curse and perhaps its origin, Cal's essence is entangled with Caliborn's; his eyes serving as "the most beautiful windows into [Caliborn's] hideous soul." Lil Cal's origins are paradoxical and occur across multiple universes, making him one of the more temporally convoluted jujus. Caliborn previously feared the curse Cal contained, but became relieved and excited when, in his communion with Cal, he realized that the curse would be brought about by himself. Originally believing there to exist two separate instances of Cal within the same universe, one on Earth, one in Dirk's Dersite room, Caliborn had demanded that Dirk destroyed his personal real world rendition which had acted as his guardian in the absence of his Bro, to enforce its inherent singular nature as a juju. Despite his reluctance to do so, Dirk's selves are rendered unconscious and his waking self dropped his Cal into the ocean, which was currently on fire. However, this rendition of Cal was then found by Gamzee in Earth's far future and delivered to a delighted Caliborn.

Dave has a long history with Lil Cal through his ownership by his Bro. Initially believed by Dave to be thoroughly awesome, Lil Cal slowly began to both disturb him over years of interaction, leading him to eventually flip the fuck out, through a combination of disquieting aesthetic and appearing very suddenly and inexplicably (though in most instances the latter is orchestrated by Dave's brother). These two traits have been burned into his subconscious by Gamzee, which lead to the creation of a "dream self" for Cal that paradoxically became the very puppet owned by his Bro that haunted Dave's waking self and then in turn branched off into all other instances of Cal from there. Specifically, Dream Cal was ultimately sent by Skaia, via the Reckoning, to become the Cal of both an early universe B1 and B2 due to the scratch. Both renditions of Cal seem to be influenced by the same curse, as suggested by Gamzee's hypnotic gaze into the eyes of a repaired B1 Cal. This provides a correlation between Gamzee's friendship of Lil Cal, and his early knowledge of, and devotion to, cherubs.

Lil Cal also seems to have had a hypnotic effect on Jack Noir, causing him to stab out his eyes and replace them with those of Lil Cal, as well as cut off his shackled leg, freeing him and giving a strikingly similar appearance to Lord English​. This seems to have provided him with an increase in power, as he promptly exploded out of the Prospitian prison cell that had held him for many months.

Having had his eyes removed using a juju breaker implies that the iteration of Cal given to Jack has been destroyed as a juju. However, it may be that the juju properties have been transferred to the still-intact eyes, or indeed, the eyes may have been the true juju all along.

Green and red suckers

Calliope and Caliborn each have their own juju: a giant color-coded sucker, each in a color matching its owner's blood. When in close proximity, the suckers gain a magnet-like attraction and fuse together into one green-and-red spiral sucker. Anyone holding the fused juju gains the irresistible urge to lick it; doing so engages Trickster Mode.

While Calliope claimed that her juju would be useless without her brother's, Caliborn said that they each did something on their own and that they probably did the exact opposite of each other. Calliope kept her juju in a juju chest, and it is apparently an heirloom passed down to her by her ancestors. The same is probably true of Caliborn's juju.

The suckers enchanted the shackles keeping their shared body chained to the wall, preventing them from leaving the meteor until Caliborn took full control of the body and freed himself from Calliope's chain by gnawing off his leg. The two cherubs gave the captcha codes for their jujus to two of the B2 kids as gifts: Calliope gave hers to Jane and Caliborn gave his to Jake. Jake later attempted to give the second code to Jane but could not remember it; Jane was, however, easily able to deduce it. After the suckers are alchemized, they fuse and Jane engages Trickster Mode by licking it.

The Captchalogue code for the suckers is derived from Ouroboros, differentiated into two codes by their owners' respective typing quirks: "UrobUros" for Calliope's and "uROBuROS" for Caliborn's. Applying punch-card alchemy logic, ANDing (&&) the two codes gives "OHG1OHGK", and ORing (||) the two codes produces the code "?!wl?!w?". It is yet to be seen what objects this would create.

As the suckers fuse together, a variant on an ouroboros, consisting of an intertwined black and white snake biting each other's tails, becomes briefly superimposed over the combined juju. This variant is identical to AURYN from The Neverending Story, except without the red and green eyes. The two serpents were separately visible during the alchemisation of the suckers; the white snake on a black background for Calliope's, and the black snake on a white background for Caliborn's.

There is a background associated with the spiral sucker. It flashes black and white for a single frame, and interestingly the white is paired with the red and the black with the green, even though Caliborn is associated with black and Calliope is associated with white. This emphasises the cherubs' theme of duality.

The Treasure

A weapon that was hidden in the Furthest Ring. It is supposedly one of the keys to defeating Lord English. It appears to be a transparent, glowing version of the Sburb logo. It has been theorised that the treasure is a physical representation for the narrative of the story, thus owing to it's title as "The Ultimate Weapon/Treasure."

Vriska has explained that the juju was obtained by Caliborn from Yaldabaoth upon completing his session. It was said to only have the ability to be used twice , once as a weapon by Caliborn, resulting in him “altering its nature” such that for the second time it could be used “only as a weapon against him”. Caliborn used it when the eight god tier kids confronted him, trapping the four B1 kids inside forever, rendering the juju intangible. It was then hidden in the Furthest Ring with the aid of the Ring of Void so that it could not be used against him.

Vriska has since found the treasure, and John tried to touch it, even though she warned him against it. Post-transformation, it appears to act as a gateway to multiple points in time and space, and consequently makes any object that passes through appear at a myriad of places, both spatially and in respect to timeline. It is unknown if this effect is totally randomised, or if the points an object that passes through appears in have a pattern to them. Shortly after passing through it a second time, John's dream hologram started blurring out and he vanished, his physical body shortly following suit. The result of this seems to have given him the ability to travel through time and space and interact with people and things without having to obey the rules of stable time loops. He has described his newfound ability as being "unstuck in canon."

Vriska believes that the second use of the treasure is yet to be utilized, and alludes to the fact that it may be in releasing “the souls of some incredi8ly powerful warriors of legend who came close to 8eating him once, so he trapped them inside the charm and 8anished it into the void”. These would undoubtedly be the four B1 kids who were trapped inside the juju in the aforementioned battle, with the true power of the treasure being to release them so that they might “finish the jo8” of killing English.

Interestingly, the treasure is reminiscent of the architecture in the dream bubble where Calliope is hidden, as well as clearly a resemblance to the Sburb Beta insignia. Furthermore, its ability to impart paradoxical retcon effects is reflected by its transparent intangibility on the webpage; it is a literal plot hole.

Chess set

Calliope and Caliborn own a chess set, believed by Meenah to be a juju. Rather than white and black, the piece colors match their blood colors of lime and red respectively. Calliope believes her brother to have deliberately lost or eaten many of its pieces. Notably, the shape of the rooks resembles the outline of Doc Scratch's clock.

A single game of chess has been seen, in which Calliope successfully forced Caliborn into checkmate; this ended awry when Caliborn revealed his king and queen to have been disguised as each other for its duration while still performing legal moves. This prompted Calliope to both continue playing the game after its supposed end and ultimately suffer defeat by forfeit. This references the story of the duel between Calmasis and Zazzerpan in Complacency of the Learned.

The effect of the chess set as a juju is unknown.

Effigies

An effigy has magical properties binding it to the mortality of someone, depending on what hat [they] wear; tied to the vitality of whoever owns the hat placed on it. Damage received retroactively in any timeline (necessary to keep up with the Felt) is slapped onto these effigies, allowing Stitch to heal them by repairing the effigies. It seems this works both ways, as Stitch tries to set Spades Slick on fire by putting his hat on an effigy and burning it.

Eggs' timer

Eggs uses his timer to go back in time haphazardly and stupidly, and possibly into another timeline; he is notably prone to making a mess of it. Eggs usually takes Biscuits in his oven with him, creating an army of Eggs and Biscuits duplicates.

Biscuits' oven

Biscuits' oven has the power to send him forward in time by the amount he sets it to, at an astounding speed of one second per second. Despite this rather unremarkable power, it would be incorrect to say that it does nothing; Clubs Deuce set some C4 to detonate in a few seconds and tossed it in, but they still had time to safely wheel it away. It is possible that the inside of the oven is "paused" for the set amount of time, though the outside remains unaffected. If this is the case, the thick bulk of outside seems to protect the inside from the crowbar. Another possibility for its supposed juju powers is that it appears to be bigger on the inside; the entirety of the Felt went into the oven so that it could be taken through Doc Scratch's clock when it was implied that they couldn't fit through otherwise.

Die's doll and pins

Die has a set of pins, each corresponding to a member of the Felt or the Midnight Crew. If these pins are inserted into the voodoo doll, the person holding the doll jumps to a timeline where that member is dead. If a pin is removed, they will jump to a timeline where that member is still alive. Spades Slick stole this and used it to commit time shenanigans.

A line from Caliborn implies that the doll and pins were with Die as soon as he unlocked him. He appears to initially have all of the pins in the doll (likely excluding the minions unlocked before him), and takes one pin out every time a new minion is unlocked.

Slick later used the doll to bring back all members of the Felt except for Snowman. It seems to actually summon them to the current timeline, instead of transporting Slick to a timeline where they are all alive, which conflicts with the previous mechanics of the doll. This may be a result of using the doll outside of its native universe.

Juju breakers

Juju breakers are extremely rare-to-non-existent items capable of destroying other jujus and negating their effects, most notably those of temporal artifacts on the current timeline. Only one juju breaker is currently known to exist, a crowbar serving as the signature item of, well, Crowbar​. It was used on Eggs' timer, the Felt's safe, Doc Scratch's grandfather clock, and Lord English's god tier clock. Caliborn and B2 Jack Noir are each currently in possession of an instance of this item. It was given to both of them by Gamzee, who received it from Kurloz in a dream bubble. The fate of the original is not known, although it may have been rescued from the destruction of the trolls' universe along with Spades Slick, the last person to use it. Gamzee later gave this to B2 Jack Noir via the Droll, and Jack apparently used it to pry out Lil Cal's eyeballs. Caliborn utilized this weapon to defeat Yaldabaoth. The crowbar may potentially be a reference to Half-Life, where the protagonist Gordan Freeman wields a crowbar and repeatedly gets a new one.

Juju chests

Juju chests are special containers that cherubs use to store their jujus. Supposedly, they can only opened by cherubs, however Vriska is able to open the juju chest containing Caliborn's juju without any difficulty (possibly due to her Class, or the fact that this occurred within a Dream bubble). Calliope kept her sucker inside one of these chests and it is likely that Caliborn did the same with his. Kurloz possesses a rendition of a chest but does not know what kind of juju is inside it and believes that it would be blasphemous to even wonder what its contents may be. Dave's Bro had a similar puppet chest in which he used to take Lil Cal out on gigs.

Suspected jujus

Lord English's Cairo Overcoat

This artifact is a large, multicolored overcoat, which can change into a golden sarcophagus that can travel through time. This has been observed only once so far, when Lord English went back in time directly after being summoned into the destroyed trolls' universe.

If time shenanigans are being committed, the coat starts to rip and tear. This is usually caused by Eggs and Biscuits; Stitch is tasked with constantly repairing it. There is also a backup coat, most likely with the same properties.

"Cairo Overcoat" is a play on "Chicago Overcoat", meaning "coffin" which in turn is a reference to Mobster Kingpin's airship in Problem Sleuth, as well as referencing Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, which takes place in Egypt. The coat also resembles the Colorful Nigerian Robes brought for the Midnight Crew by Hearts Boxcars.

Quarters's quarters

Quarters owns one coin for each two members of the Felt. With a flip of the coin, the paired up members can switch positions on different timelines. One makes an appearance in the sidebar comic during Doc Scratch's narration in the closing stages of Act 5 Act 2. This coin is marked with a 4-ball on one side and a 14-ball on the other, and has the power to summon either Clover or Quarters into the current timeline, depending on which side it lands on when flipped. Clover flips the coin while Spades Slick is fighting Matchsticks, and it lands on 14, removing Clover from the scene and summoning Quarters in his place. This coin was in the possession of Clover because flipping one's own number has terrible consequences, something that can not happen to him because of his incredible luck. Despite this risk Quarters is seen flipping the 4/14 coin a short while after joining Caliborn's army of leprechauns.

Magic cueball

Previously owned by Doc Scratch, the magic cueball, unlike a classic Magic 8-Ball, always reveals the truth to its owner and makes predictions with alarming precision and specificity, but has no window to actually read what they say. It is one of Doc Scratch's 'seeds' and suspected by Meenah to be a juju. Terezi revealed to Doc Scratch that Vriska was in possession of one, causing him to detonate it in her face. Jade possesses the only known instance of it on Earth; though one later ends up in Rose's possession; this is presumed to be Jade's.

Doc Scratch's grandfather clock

The enigmatic clock holds the ability to analyse, or perhaps arbitrate, the circumstances of a god tier player's death as either "Just" or "Heroic" (or neutral, corresponding to the player's revival), as well as simply measure the time. When Lord English is summoned into being, the clock flashes rapidly in varying colors and the hands spin wildly. This is likely because, though English is a god tier, he was granted a special brand of immortality by Yaldabaoth.

Hussie stated on his Formspring that it is up to fans' interpretation as to what the clock really does. He says there's a probability that it simply tells the result instead of influencing it, just like how regular clocks do with time. He also says there's a possibility that it does influence the result, but adds that there is a hole in that theory given that Slick broke it. A further complication is the question of whether Slick's opinion would have lent any weight to the outcome as, since he was exiled by Vriska, he would consider her death Just.

The carvings around the door to Yaldabaoth's lair in Caliborn's session are shaped exactly like the top of the clock, and the pillars match the siding panels. As noted above, the rooks in Calliope and Caliborn's chess set also resemble the shape of the clock.

Certain decorative elements of the clock are notable. Compared to the original stock image, it can be seen that two major changes have been made: the creatures next to the face of the clock were given large crocodile-like heads, and large wings were added to the figures at the top of the clock (which already had wings, but much smaller ones). It has been speculated that both these details are meant to resemble cherubs: the reptilian heads look like the snake heads of cherubs in their mating form, while the winged figures also resemble adult cherubs.

The clock also serves as an emergency exit from Doc Scratch's apartment should the members of the Felt ever need to leave in a hurry. The section of the clock front containing the pendulum can be pried (or punched) open to reveal a secret passageway.

The Felt's safe

The Felt's safe conceals a hatch behind its seemingly enchanted doors; a hatch that, if an exile scans their barcode, allows access to a terminal able to empower the post-scratch trolls. Access to it served as the primary goal of the Midnight Crew during the events of the intermission, and was gained by the use of Crowbar's juju breaker.

The Rings of Life and Void

A pair of mysterious rings that provide powerful aspect-related abilities. The Ring of Life can be used to resurrect spirits in the Furthest Ring, and the Ring of Void provides complete invisibility and intangibility to the wearer. They are said to be correspondent with one another, one being lost whenever its counterpart is found. The Ring of Life was most recently used by Aranea Serket in GAME OVER, via mind-controlled Gamzee; however, after the events of GAME OVER, The Condesce ripped it off her finger and snapped her neck. It is currently unknown whether someone who has worn the ring will stay alive after wearing it, as Aranea was killed immediately after the Condesce took it (however, as Aranea's eyes seem to turn a ghostly white before she falls into the fire, it is possible that having the ring removed does remove their living properties. The condence snapping Aranea's neck would not have caused her eyes to turn white, it would have just killed her). It is now in the possession of Roxy Lalonde after "retcon shenanigans" by John Egbert, who has passed it to Calliope, rendering her alive again.