The Felt

Lord English •  Doc Scratch •   1  Itchy •   2  Doze •   3  Trace •   4  Clover •   5  Fin •   6  Die •   7  Crowbar •   8  Snowman •   9  Stitch •   10  Sawbuck •   11  Matchsticks •   12  Eggs •   13  Biscuits •   14  Quarters •   15  Cans

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For the album, see The Felt (album).

The Felt are a gang of time travellers that operate across numerous universes and timelines in the service of their master, Lord English. Their most notable incarnation appears on the planet Alternia, where they are a rival gang to the Midnight Crew.

Concept and creation

The Felt use a billiards or pool motif to their appearance and character, in contrast with the playing card theme of the Midnight Crew. The standard members of the gang are completely green, besides a brightly-colored hat with number on it corresponding one of the 15 non-cue balls. 8 and below are solid colors, while 9 and up are striped and use white flanks on their hats. Their headquarters on Alternia is an entirely green mansion, and they have at least one other base in a building on the green moon. The recurring use of this color plus the name "the Felt" itself correspond to the green felt used to line pool tables, and the border around their title in [S]MIDNIGHT CREW: ACT 1031 is even shaped like a pool table. According to Caliborn, their "skin" also feels like the felt material used for pool tables.

Many members of the Felt are named after what the numbers on their hats are called in various languages; Itchy, for example, is named for 'ichi', the number one in Japanese, while Doze and Trace sound like 'dos' and 'tres', the numbers two and three in Spanish.

History

Caliborn's session

A few members of the Felt in their early leprechaun duds.

The regular members of the Felt, numbering through 1-7 and 9-15, are leprechauns originating in Caliborn's dead session. Each planet Caliborn destroyed in his session unlocked a new one as a minion, dressed in outfits similar to the session's Carapacian attire and pointed hats displaying their corresponding color and number. Most of the leprechauns have either a unique abilities to control time or a juju which allows them to do so. They initially lack names, Caliborn simply labelling them “[y]ellow hat and blue hat”; Andrew Hussie suggests giving them mobster-themed names, as “mobsters are cool”, resulting in their later prohibition-era gangster aesthetic and power-related monikers under the service of the adult Caliborn, Lord English.

Intermission

Original timeline

The Felt are antagonists in the fictional MS Paint Adventure Midnight Crew^[image?] and appear in related merchandise.

Fittingly, they make their first appearance in Homestuck's first Intermission as enemies of the real Midnight Crew; after Lord English "knocked down" one of their casinos, Crew leader Spades Slick vows revenge, and so the Crew storm the Felt's mansion hideout with the intent of wiping out every member, destroying their 1000 clocks, and plundering Lord English's treasure from his high security vault.^{[citation needed]}

Unfavorable timeline

By breaking into Lord English's vault, Slick releases a large burst of “temporal distortion” which leads him to a “highly unfavorable timeline” where all members of the Felt are dead save for Snowman, Doc Scratch and Lord English himself. During Doc Scratch's interlude, however, some of the leprechauns reappear as a result of Spades Slick setting a fire in the apartment. Matchsticks comes from the past using the fire, apparently bringing Clover with him, before being killed by Slick. Clover switches with Quarters from the past, only for the latter to be killed by Snowman to preserve the alpha timeline. Thus explaining how Matchsticks and Quarters were already killed before the Crew entered the mansion.

The Felt with new comrades Spades Slick and Ms. Paint.

Act 6

In the aftermath of the A2 universe's destruction and Hussie's death at the hands of Lord English, the rebuilt cybernetic Spades Slick uses Die's doll to revive the deceased the Felt members, who choose to follow his lead thanks to his possession of Lord English's Cuestaff. Though he chooses to exempt Snowman, whose revival “could have some really weird consequences”, he recruits Ms. Paint to serve as the gang's replacement 8-ball member. The gang proceeds to accompany Slick to the B2 session through Doc Scratch's magic timepiece, which doubles as a gateway into the Furthest Ring.

Still intent on settling his grudge with Lord English, Slick deploys the gang on the Land of Mounds and Xenon to distract Jake English while he flies off to confront English's nearest incarnation. The fourteen leprechauns put up a good fight, but are all eventually beaten down by Jake, save for Crowbar, who resigns from the fight in apathy at the sight of the rest of his gang being trounced,^[image?] Clover, who finds himself falling for his opponent Karkat Vantas, and Cans, who is last seen being thoroughly overpowered by Jane Crocker's Dad.

Members

Itchy

Doze

Trace

Clover

Fin

Die

Crowbar

Snowman

Stitch

Sawbuck

Matchsticks

Eggs

Biscuits

Quarters

Cans

Felt mansion

The Felt's mansion evokes the practice of Middle Ages feudalism, where the economic center of a peasant settlement was the manor of the Lord. The presence of Karkat Vantas' exile terminal within the mansion's vault indicates that it may be built at the former location of Terezi's hive.

The mansion exterior is based on pictures of Carson Mansion in Eureka, California, while Slick's map of the interior^[image?] is based on the map of Resident Evil's Spencer Mansion.

On Snapchat and in Homestuck: Beyond Canon (Dubiously Canon)

Following Homestuck's conclusion, with Slick killed in action the Felt turn to Jack Noir as their new leader. Under his direction, they quickly begin work on a new mansion on the Land of Frost and Frogs, and, upon discovering the door into the new universe, convert Biscuits' oven into a rocket to transport the reformed team there. Unfortunately, over the new Earth's Moon, one of the rockets explodes, causing a crash landing. Jane Crocker, having been teleported nearby by anti-human activists, uses the opportunity to take control of Jack with her Unreal Heiress Thoughtwave necklace, and hops into the oven to escape the destruction of the oncoming somnaformation.

Though this thread was left hanging for some years, Jane later revealed to Jake English that she had used her newfound control over the gang to have the Felt build her “a machine that will emit a guided beam” (or “[a] laser”) from the moon to any location of her choosing on Earth. If she finds herself unable to take control of The Point from her enemy rebels, she will use this weapon to destroy it instead.

Trivia

• The number of buttons on the Felt's original leprechaun outfits corresponded to their hat number; on their new mobster clothes, the number of buttons on each member is seemingly arbitrary.