The Tumor, which counts the Mysterious Countdown up to the Critical Moment
The Mysterious Countdown appears in Act 5 Act 2. Various events are marked against this clock, with 00:00 marking a Critical Moment. What the critical event was had been unknown during most of the countdown itself. Eventually, it was revealed to be the destruction of Bilious Slick (specifically, the one embodying the kids' home universe) through Jack Noir. The light from the Green Sun finally reaches the trolls' Incipisphere after travelling through the Furthest Ring for an unknown period of time.
The destruction of Billious Slick is circumstantially simultaneous to two other events, namely the death of Snowman at the hands of Spades Slick and the explosion of the tumor. Since both the countdown displayed on the tumor and the mysterious countdown start at 10:25 and reach 00:00 at a circumstantially simultaneous moment, it could be argued that the moment John finds the tumor and other moments in the kids' session may be circumstantially simultaneous to the respective events in the trolls' session that are listed on the mysterious countdown.
Events that are marked on the Mysterious Countdown are:
- 10:25
- 6:12
- 5:12:30
Karkat wakes up and orders everyone to not sleep anymore.- The events of Alterniabound take place.
- Between 5:12:30 and 4:13
- Karkat learns of four kids from the new universe that would cause the creation of Jack Noir, and as such begins to loathe them for being responsible for the troll's predicamemt.
- Karkat decides to troll the kids, giving an "inspirational" speech on the matter. A memo is started by Terezi about the matter, and hilarity ensues.
- Karkat has his first interaction with one of the humans, John Egbert, and the conversation becomes awkward quickly. The two agree never to bring up said conversation again.
- The other trolls follow suit, and begin chatting with the four kids. Many pesterlogs occur, which can be found on each troll's page.
- 4:13
- First, Rose blows up Eridan's computer.
- Aradiabot hugs Sollux and then self-destructs.
- Jack Noir attacks Derse and shows Dream Feferi and Dream Nepeta his stabs before destroying the planet, but is frozen in time for an indeterminate period by the newly ascended to god tier Aradia (whose dream self was concealed within Derse's core).
- Between 4:13 and 3:14
- 3:14
- Vriska wakes up, after sleeping in her god tier garb. She tells her plan to Tavros, who decides to stop her.
- Terezi, distraught at the death of a doomed timeline Dave, pushes Karkat off and hides in her dwellings.
- Kanaya decides to return to the core, but is stopped by Eridan. Eridan confronts Feferi and asks her to join him in swearing allegiance to Jack.
- Eridan engages Sollux in battle, KOs him, kills both Kanaya and Feferi, and destroys the Matriorb.
- Gamzee goes off the deep end and decides to kill some trolls as well.
- Karkat surveys the fight's aftermath. Messages from Doc Scratch and Gamzee unsettle him.
- 2:42
- Tavros confronts Vriska with disastrous results, he is killed...
- ...and falls near a mulling Terezi.
- Terezi loses her glasses while trying to revive Tavros. They're later used by Gamzee to keep scaring Karkat.
- Between 2:42 and 0:00
- Gamzee sends a message to past Karkat while casually stalking the other trolls.
- Terezi comes back to the central asteroid hub, finding Feferi's corpse with strange puncture wounds. Kanaya is missing.
- Karkat drags Sollux to a safer position and contacts Equius for backup.
- Equius orders Nepeta to hide and goes to confront Gamzee. While sneaking through the vents, Nepeta finds someone has been playing artist with Tavros' blood and a jade-blooded creature with access to very sharp implements has been on the prowl.
- Equius cannot do it. He cannot bring himself to attack the purpleblood. He and Nepeta are killed.
- Sollux wakes up, blind. He pesters Terezi, but their conversation ends when Terezi is bitten by Kanaya.
- A showdown between Vriska, Gamzee, and Eridan is interrupted by Kanaya. Kanaya punches Vriska, kicks Gamzee off the edge of the platform and chainsaws Eridan in half, killing him.
- Terezi wakes up and sets out to confront Vriska. She finds a piece of Mindfang's journal stuck to the ground with Nepeta's claws, and walking forward to read it, falls through a trap door into the hidden room, in which Lil' Cal sits and Gamzee is flashstepping around.
- Karkat gets separated from Sollux and begins pestering Jade on their memo with Kanaya, believing he's in a doomed timeline, and discusses the frog breeding and Jack Noir.
- Fooled by Gamzee into believing Vriska is responsible for all the recent murders, she is led into confronting Vriska, who at the moment was pestering Rose (and possibly, through her, John). Terezi kills Vriska to prevent her from unwittingly leading Jack to the surviving trolls.
- Karkat, Kanaya and Sollux regroup and gather where Terezi is. Gamzee soon follows, now wielding the Warhammer of Zillyhoo. Karkat neutralizes Gamzee with calming shooshes and paps; in conversations after this point, Karkat is visibly distressed by the effort.
- 0:00
- The most important character in Homestuck fondly regards the miracle of a new beginning while witnessing Jade's lab explode as a result of Jadesprite flipping out. (0:10-0:00)
- Terezi asks Dave to send her past (6:12) self 413 boonbonds.
- The Critical Moment: Jack Noir kills Bilious Slick. On Alternia, Spades Slick kills Snowman. In the Furthest Ring, The Tumor detonates, creating the Green Sun. The Reckoning ends.
- Roughly 1:00 later
- Terezi chimes in to her past self's memo to encourage her to troll the kids, while Karkat from the same time voices his disgust. Before the events of Cascade, this was the only signal someone had survived past it.
- By this moment, the remaining trolls, Dave and Rose are heading towards the new universe. John, Jade and Davesprite write them a message in a pail, disgusting Karkat.
Trivia[]
- On the Skaianet Systems Incorporated website another countdown leading to April 13th, 2029 has been shown; the date ties to the 20th anniversary of Homestuck and the ruled out prediction for the real world asteroid 99942 Apophis impacting the Earth. Apophis is also referenced in the site's code and hidden files, implied to have accelerated the decline of post-Scratch Earth's human civilization.