Tree stump

Tree stumps are objects that appear throughout the MS Paint Adventures cosmos, almost always surrounded by a “powerful cosmic magnetism towards suicide”. Underneath at least some of these "Suicide Stumps" are guns “placed there in case you need to off yourself at some point”; "the original founders of the Suicide Stump wanted to make sure that any depressed person who chanced upon it could access that gun as easily as possible."

In Jailbreak

“You come to the heartwrenching conclusion that the only true prison... is loneliness.”

The stump's history with suicide begins with the escape of Jailbreak's two prisoners. After breaking free of the prison using a hugeified pumpkin, the first two prisoners come to rest at the edge of a forest just outside the city. The first guy, already injured with a harpoon through the torso, fires the harpoon line at a nearby stump, allowing them both to zipline across to it; when the first prisoner succumbs to his injuries, though, the other prisoner sees no reason to go on running, and ends his own life in front of the stump using a gun presumably taken from beneath the stump.

An elfs' bungalow is near to the stump, or was built there at some point after the first two prisoners' deaths; when a third prisoner finds himself there with the help of an elf's magic wish, he also encounters the stump. When he tries to use the gun kept in a compartment underneath, however, he finds that there are no bullets left, and is unable to shoot himself.

In Bard Quest & Problem Sleuth

Problem Sleuth comes with the revelation that Jailbreak's prison was located in the imaginary universe's Imaginary City Streets all along, with Jailbreak's events taking place underneath Team Sleuth's airborne conflict with Demonhead Mobster Kingpin.

A seemingly identical stump, however, also exists in Death's Game of Life, just outside a swamp where a bard is also undergoing a journey. This stump's assigned gun is well-stocked, and Ace Dick is able to successfully end his own Game of Life in front of the stump. The sole consequence of this is that he returns to real life and is actually able to contribute to his compatriots' plight.

In one alternate timeline, the MSPA reader reacted to DMK's sudden massive increase in health by reaching to kill themself at the stump.^[image?] How this timeline actually played out, and which specific stump this was, are unknown, though Andrew Hussie's commentary in the Homestuck books indicates that he believes the MSPA reader is one and the same guy "who, upon breaking out of jail, at some point became fixated on the idea of suicide in the proximity of this tree stump with a harpoon stuck in it."

In Homestuck

As part of Homestuck's tradition of New Year's ball drops, the transition from 2010 to 2011 saw the laboratory at the top of Jade Harley's formerly-Pacific island home on the Land of Frost and Frogs fall from its tower and mirror the first two Jailbreakers' escape by snowballing down a nearby hill and coming to rest near a lone tree stump.^[image?] Thankfully, the parallels end here, as even though the stump's appearance serves to mark the "emotional bummer" at that point in the story, and despite Jadesprite's miserable state of mind at the time, neither she nor the living Jade committed suicide.

“It keeps happening.”

The MSPA reader also makes a return appearance in Homestuck, contemplating suicide once more thanks to the author's unforgivable self-indulgence. This stump is seemingly located on, or has been transported to, the "stark and lonely" Land of Stumps and Dismay (LOSAD), whose very name emanates misery in every conceivable way. The reader once more reaches for the gun when John Egbert's retcon shenanigans “never stop from keep happening constantly”, and makes one final suicide threat during a mental breakdown^[image?] brought on by the discovery of Lil Cal's true timeline.

On Snapchat (Dubiously Canon)

the Felt chopping down the Land of Frost and Frogs' forests.

Though an explanation for a single stump on the Land of Frost and Frogs is never given, with Hussie dismissively commenting that it must have been "an iguana out here with a saw [...] Harvesting lumber for...what?", the time travelling Felt's endeavor to build a second wooden manor on the planet may offer a possibly insight.

In Hiveswap Friendship Simulator (Dubiously Canon)

In Hiveswap Friendship Simulator: Volume 2, the player finds the stump on Alternia, just outside of Cirava Hermod's hive, and considers using its facilities after they become the subject of a scathing callout post from Cirava.^{[citation needed]}