MSPA reader

MSPA Reader
“You've found your river, and you're going to see where it leads.”
First Appearance
AKA	the alien, mailman, Savior of the Waking World
Screen name	AlienInvasionofOne
Typing style	Standard grammar and syntax. You tend to narrate what you do and you talk in second person.
Strife specibi	pistolkind
Relations	Polypa Goezee - Moirail Chixie Roixmr - One-Sided Moirail Stelsa Sezyat - One-Sided Moirail
Live(s) in	Abandoned watchtower on Alternia
Planet	Land of Stumps and Dismay
Likes	Friendship, Space Jam
Hates	Doc Scratch, The Homestuck Epilogues
Music	END OF FRIENDVANGELION ♫ Embittered Shore ♫

Generally, the term MSPA readers is a stand-in for people who read MS Paint Adventures. In the Incipisphere, their planet is the Land of Stumps and Dismay. Their Strife Specibus is pistolkind.

They are the people actually trying to play the game. MSPA readers type in commands to the game, trying to accomplish some goal that is set by the game, or to try to see if the game will do some silly event that they would really like to see.

However, the game usually ends up resulting in something inexplicably unexpected, and this may leave the reader with no choice but make a personal visit to a particular tree stump.

MSPA readers sometimes donated money to the Tip Flask in order to receive custom-made commands, and an entire series of commands have been completely Donation Funded, some of them creating characters that have become very popular, but this function has been discontinued. Some characters and concepts from these special pages made their way into Homestuck, such as most notably the Midnight Crew.

A MSPA Reader (under)reacting to an update.

Some readers have taken the time to document the game as a strategy guide of sorts. I'm sure it's very useful in helping get past some of the really long parts of the game.

Outside of the literal meaning of readers of MSPA, the MSPA Reader has also grown to become something of their own character. They've evolved to become much more than simply a blank-slate stand-in of a protagonist, and take charge of the narrative on their own within the games of Friendsim and Pesterquest.

The Player

MSPA readers are collectively known in game as The Player, and can have actions in the game themselves, such as screwing around with a Sylladex, or can enact actions that go outside of the game, such as pausing or going back to the title screen. They are mostly attributed to being the ones that give the commands, though.

While they make their first appearance in Jailbreak as a Prisoner, the first appearance of the MSPA Reader as the MSPA Reader was in Problem Sleuth, shortly after DMK used LADDER TO HELL. On that page, the two commands were: MSPA readers: React to update. or MSPA readers: Never mind. Continue. Deciding upon MSPA readers: React to update would lead you to a page where an MSPA reader is seen sitting at their computer, excited about a new update. After looking at the new update, the reader promptly draws a pistol (presumably from their pocket) and judging by previous reactions to the nearby stump, it is likely the reader would proceed to off themselves.

The MSPA Reader later appeared in Homestuck for two pages and then five more pages later on. After the ludicrous reveal of Lil Cal and Lord English's nature, the MSPA Reader has a veritable breakdown in light of the sheer volume of ramifications from this reveal.

Statistics

Like characters, the Player can gain levels and points, although these don't really bear any significance.

• Matching Skill Level: YUKON HERO: LEGACY OF THE FROSTBITE AMPUTEE
• Strife Specibus: pistolkind

In Hiveswap Friendsim (Dubiously Canon)

The title screen for Hiveswap: Friendsim

Main article: Hiveswap Friendship Simulator

Hiveswap Friendsim serves as an origin story for the MSPA Reader. At the beginning of Volume One, the Reader has crash landed on Alternia after stealing a spaceship from an unspecified location. During the course of each volume, the Reader has the chance to befriend two or three of the Troll Call trolls, starting with Ardata Carmia and Diemen Xicali and ending with Lanque Bombyx and the Soleil twins.

Throughout the story, the Reader changed outfits many times. After the events of Volume Two, the Reader wears the outfit they picked out at Cirava Hermod's hive, until it is destroyed at the end of Skylla Koriga's route. After Volume Four, the Reader is clad in Tagora Gorjek's bathrobe. During her route in Volume Eight, Chixie Roixmr will allow the Reader to change their clothes in her dressing room, their new outfit similar in appearance to that of another MSPA character. In Volume Eleven, after pushing the Reader into the water, Mallek Adalov will allow them to wear one of his hoodies. Finally, while attending the party in Lanque Bombyx's route in Volume Eighteen, the player will wear old clothes they foraged and deigned to be appropriate for the setting. In the Soleil twins' route, they are shown once again wearing Mallek's hoodie in the ending images, and they also wear it in the Epilogue.

Starting in Volume Thirteen, the Reader begins to become aware of odd inconsistencies within their reality. They mention to Boldir Lamati in one of her bad ends that they've died before, but when she questions them about it, they seem to be as confused about it as she is. This alludes to several bad endings in routes before that have resulted in the Reader's death. Later on in the same bad ending, the Reader becomes distressed as they watch Boldir die, unable to reconcile the fact that they're crying over the many friends they've had die and that their friends have never died. These brief thoughts of previous bad endings continue into Volume Fourteen and Fifteen.

In Volume Sixteen, the Reader encounters a strange flashing light in Fozzer's graveyard, exposure to which manages to alter Fozzer's mind and change his socialist views to pro-imperial. In the same volume during one of Marvus's bad endings, the MSPA Reader becomes aware of having made a wrong choice and thus dooming the current timeline. Marvus attempts to shield the Reader from the multiple, seemingly spontaneous events that the Reader interprets as the universe trying to kill them. Eventually, Marvus takes the Reader to Clown Church to keep them safe, but they end up slipping away into a time paradox.

During Nihkee Moolah's second bad ending in Volume Seventeen, the Reader prepares to meet with Nihkee once again to show her how strong they've gotten training with Stelsa. After getting in their scuttlebuggy, the Reader begins to feel nervous and tries to meditate to calm themself. This meditation brings out the Reader's memories of different routes, both good and bad. Eventually, they're able to focus in on the potential bad ending they're about to head towards. During their meeting with Nihkee, they will somehow cause her to lose her remaining leg. Afterwards, she will begin to chase the player down in vengeance, until she is hit by a train. She will be rebuilt as a cyborg and kill the Reader after chasing them for a year. Seeing this bad ending, the Reader chooses instead to go spend some more time with Stelsa and Tyzias.

In Friendsim's Epilogue, the Reader finds themself back at Fozzer's graveyard. They decide to investigate the strange light again, this time uncovering a fenestrated wall. Passing through leads them to Doc Scratch's apartment on Alternia's green moon. When the Reader attempts to move closer to Scratch in order to befriend him, he realizes he forgot to remove their urge to make friends with everyone. Upon snapping his fingers, the Reader begins to feel sick and later panicked over the loss of warm feelings for the friends they've made. Scratch explains that he has been orchestrating their journey from the very beginning. He tells the reader that it was important for them to make all of their friends, since it put them in a place in life that was apparently important to his plan. In order to explain further, he directs the Reader to a room with a computer, with the internet browser open to the first page of a certain webcomic. 

In Pesterquest (Dubiously Canon)

Pesterquest follows the Reader's story after reading Homestuck and The Homestuck Epilogues. Upset at the story direction, the Reader makes an escape through Scratch's fenestrated wall. They hope to land back on Alternia to find their friends, but instead get stuck inside the fenestrated wall. They find and stick their hand into the Treasure Juju, gaining retcon powers but losing their memories in the process.

They find themselves on Earth, in front of John's house. Without their memories, they return to befriending characters with each new volume, at first temporarily posing as a mailman, but quickly forgoing the lie. They befriend each of the beta kids, the beta trolls, and finally the alpha kids. With their friendships and actions, they alter the timeline from Homestuck proper, destroying the chances of the kids playing SBURB. Slowly, the Reader regains their memories, most notably their memories of Friendsim with Aradia in her route, and their memories of reading Homestuck and everything else in Dirk's route.

In the Afterw@rd, MSPA Reader is cut from the good end of Dirk's route and transported back into the Felt Mansion. There, they meet the authorial figures, Ultimate Dirk and Aysha , who instruct the Reader to set the timeline back on track by letting the kids play SBURB. If MSPA Reader refuses and decides on their own story direction, they take matters into their own hands. They (and Aradia) take a trip to the Green Sun. MSPA Reader teleports themself into the Green Sun and allows their body to be consumed by the narrative power of the Sun, becoming a First Guardian to protect their friends and the timeline. Their ending is left ambiguous, and they now reside in a dark space, holding the glowing timeline.

Gallery

The outfit the reader chooses for themself in Cirava's hive.

One of Chixie's good endings, where the Reader's new outfit can be seen.

The Reader in Mallek's hoodie.

The Reader's party outfit in Volume Eighteen.

The Reader is wearing Mom's robe in Rose's good ending.

The Reader is wearing Bro's shirt in Dave's good ending.

The Reader is wearing green outfit in Kanaya's good ending

The Reader as a newly appointed First Guardian, protecting the timeline.

The Reader's sprites in the epilogue.

See also

• Fandom

Trivia

• The MSPA Reader was in a 40 player session at the time of their appearance in Homestuck, as indicated by the arrow on this page.
• They mention having posters on the walls of their ship in Friendsim Volume 7.
• The MSPA Reader is the only known first guardian to oversee an entire timeline, rather than a single planet.
  • They are also the only first guardian to not have been born a first guardian.
• In her Pesterquest route, Aradia confirms that MSPA Reader has a Classpect, but does not reveal what it is, only that "your particular class and aspect combination have given you knowledge and foresight you shouldnt have."