i love your meta abt the poisons, but iirc you forgot the most important poison in homestuck: arsenic. every time "33" is mentioned in homestuck in particular by a Leijon, its referring to the poison arsenic. nepeta+fusions all begin every message with that poison and then a reversed command arrow, and davepeta even spices it up with a B at the start for 8, i.e. infinity, to arquius' nothingness as doc scratch (cue ball, O, void), a poison to lord english
oh yeah, since sugar is also called a poison i.e. psychoactive drug by trolls, nepeta’s land being covered in it strengthens the poison associations of the arsenicCatnip (catnip also being psychoactive! nepeta is poison-coded! shes associated wth death! think death’s tea in problem sleuth, too)
This is some really interesting analysis! I’m impressed that you’ve managed to tie number symbology into it, too. Let me try to break this down;
- In line with Poison Theory, Nepeta is associated with three poisons of her own;
- The famously poisonous element arsenic, at number 33 on the periodic table
- Catnip, which is a psychoactive substance to cats
- Sugar, which completely covers her Land of Little Cubes and Tea and is a psychoactive substance to trolls
- Note that Nepetasprite’s first appearance features this line from Jasprosesprite^2:
- Also note that of the four Alpha Kids’ Lands, it’s the Prince of Heart’s Land of Tombs and Krypton (element number 36) that is prominently also covered in poison, to the point where gas masks are required to explore LOTAK to any significant degree.
- Further connecting her to Death, who cries pure black poison, is Nepeta’s association with tea and tea parties.
- Davepetasprite^2 brings it a step further by adding sunglasses to Nepeta’s :33 face using the letter B - representing 8, infinity, and the colour black. This is in contrast to Equius and ARquius, who represents 0, void, and the white cueball.
- Note that arsenic (3+3) adds up to 6, also connected to the letter B, and that krypton (3+6) adds up to 9, also connected to the letter O.
I think the fact that you’ve brought up the Death and sunglasses connections is particular important, because it fits pretty snugly with a theory I’ve had bouncing around in my head for a while now about the connection between the MSPA’s iconic Ben Stiller shades and the Dead Cherub - Homestuck’s own version of Death - whose eyes are inexplicably black like sunglasses. Maybe I’ll finally put those thoughts into text form now that you’ve inspired me…