- This article is about the temporal phenomenon known as the scratch. For other uses, see scratch (disambiguation).
The scratch is a phenomena that allows a session of Sburb to be reset with new starting conditions, “meant to be utilized only in emergencies”.
Concept and creation[]
To start something from scratch means to completely undo any previous progress and start again, from the "scratch" used to mark the beginning of a track for a race or other sporting event. To scratch something can also mean to remove or erase it entirely, such as from a record.
In cue sports, a scratch is a foul involving the pocketing of the cue ball. The penalty for a foul is a ball-in-hand for the opponent, meaning they can "reset" the ball to wherever they want on the table; while this kind of scratch is generally to be avoided, there are “scenari0s f0r which it might be prudent t0 d0 s0”.
Scratching is also a popular DJing technique, especially in hip hop music, perfectly suitable for the immense DJ deck which serves as the Land of Heat and Clockwork's scratch construct.
Process[]
By physically scratching the game construct “supplied by your session for causing the Scratch” with the Quills of Echidna - procured from a denizen associated with the Space aspect, perhaps owning to both Time and Space's connection with the process - a Hero causes an immense release of “temporal energy”. Just as a burst of temporal distortion can sometimes cause a warping of timelines, sending the construct to Skaia and directing this temporal energy into it gives Skaia the energy required to forge a totally new timeline without being doomed; which is to say “[o]ffshoots of promise, rather than futility.” By changing the times to which some meteors from the incoming Reckoning are sent, it can create a timeline where different people become the Heroes of a session of Sburb, giving the universe a new chance at producing another universe.
The massive release of temporal energy associated with the scratch has the side effect of wiping anyone caught in its blast radius “from existence”; this has led to a widespread misconception that the scratch completely erases the pre-scratch timeline, preventing it from ever having happened. In truth, however, the “hard reset” is mostly symbolic, and as demonstrated by the events of Homestuck it is entirely possible for inhabitants of the pre-scratch timeline to continue existing so long as they steer clear of the temporal blast. The effect of Jack Noir's Red Miles hitting Earth both pre- and post-scratch demonstrates definitively that both timelines exist within the same universe simultaneously.
Jade Harley and Jake English communicated with each other across timelines before playing Sburb. The Condesce does not have both a pre-scratch and post-scratch version of her, but only one version who arrived on pre-scratch Earth earlier than any of the babies that John Egbert created, and later somehow relocated to post-scratch Earth.
History[]
A1[]
When the original troll session was doomed to failure, its players scratched it, resulting in a new session in which they became the ancestors of the twelve player trolls who, in the original session, were their ancestors.
B1[]
The kids activated their scratch as part of their plan to get rid of Jack, devised with the help of the trolls. In Karkat's first conversation with John (from Karkat's perspective), John heavily implied that the kids and trolls would meet in person after the scratch. Rose Lalonde and Dave Strider arrived in proximity to Aradia Megido and Sollux Captor, and met the other remaining trolls on the asteroid, brought by Sollux to the Green Sun.
The trolls can't see the future of the kids after the scratch, possibly because the kids' entire Incipisphere ceases to exist. However, since this seemed to happen just as the scratch was being initiated (and therefore the Incipisphere had not ceased to exist yet), it may simply be a mechanism to eliminate (or at the very least minimize) interference from other sessions during the process, which is very delicate and important. The trolls initially believe that the scratch is responsible for opening the hole in spacetime that led to the Great Undoing – the arrival of Jack Noir.
This led to them calling it "the Rift", but it was revealed that Jack was fleeing from the Red Miles on Earth (not realizing at the time that they were his own doing from hours later). He then went on a rampage through the troll session, preventing the trolls from claiming their Ultimate Reward. This in turn led them to contact the kids and indirectly orchestrate the scratch which led Jack Noir to the troll session in the first place.
Aradia implies that Jack flees the kids' session to avoid being wiped from existence; the kids have all avoided this fate as well: John and Jade by breaking through the fourth wall, and Rose and Dave by being far out in the Furthest Ring. Doc Scratch voluntarily provides information on the scratch, as it is apparently part of his plans, but mentions that Jack Noir coming to the troll session afterward is "none of his business." In all scratched sessions so far, Doc Scratch manipulates the players such that the scratch would benefit his master Lord English (the trolls' session bringing Doc Scratch into existence to serve as his A2 host body and servant, and the kids' allowing him to conquer Earth through The Condesce).
NPCs | Sprites • Underlings • Denizens • Consorts • First guardians • Carapacians/Exiles • Leprechauns |
Locations (starting planet) | Command stations • Forge • Frog Temple |
Locations (Incipisphere) | The Medium • The Veil/Ectobiology labs • Skaia • Prospit/Derse • Planets • The Seven Gates |
Concepts | Prototyping • Ectobiology • God tiering (Mythological roles) • Grist/Ultimate Alchemy • Boondollars • Fraymotifs • Dream selves • Phernalia • The Scratch • Null sessions • Internet |
Related concepts | Sylladex • Skaianet • Crockercorp |