Does this count as self-insert fanfic?

[rallamajoop]

You are Rallamajoop. You like WEBCOMICS because they give you an excuse to take a quick break in the middle of your workday without getting distracted for too long, but since DIGGER finished and you gave up on SOMETHING POSITIVE you haven't had many left to read.

You have just run into your third recommendation for HOMESTUCK in as many days. You don't really get what the fuss is about, or even what the comic is about except that it seems to involve A BUNCH OF KIDS playing an APOCALYPTIC COMPUTER GAME and there's this race of PANSEXUAL SPACE TROLLS involved somehow. You hear it's popular with the 4CHAN CROWD and it's fandom is WANKIER than a FOURTEEN-YEAR OLD HOMOPHOBIC AIM USER with STRONG OPINIONS ABOUT COMIC BOOKS while caught in the throws of MUTANT PUBERTY. On the other hand, some of those recommendations sounded very promising. Maybe it's worth a try.

What will you do?
=> What the hell. Give it a try.
=> Read next page
=> Read next page
=> Read next page
=> Read next page

[several hundred similar decisions deleted for space]

=> Read next page
=> Read next page
=> Read nex... no wait, don't read the next page. Notice what time it is.

It is now several hours since you started reading this comic. It is also well past your bedtime. What will you do?
=> ¬.¬
=> Read next page

Oh come ON. The Internet will still be there tomorrow. What, do you think you can finish the whole thing tonight?
=> ...
=> Check size of full comic archive and the relative position of your progress

You're... actually, you're not very far in, are you?

Well fuck. There goes your FREE TIME for the FORESEEABLE FUTURE.

Comments

[velithya]

not you too :(

[rallamajoop.livejournal.com]

I think I'm in love. ♥_♥

Uh. So. This is a common problem? I have no real trouble believing that.

[velithya]

several people on my f.list are super into homestuck.

[rallamajoop.livejournal.com]

Well that number may have just increased to several+1. What can I say, I am a sucker for ridiculously over-complicated slash/femmeslash-friendly universes full of gratuitous programming geekery, amazingly awesome characters and equally awesome writing.

Getting a little sick of hearing about it? ^^;

[velithya]

heh, not so far. Maybe one day I'll read it :)

[rallamajoop.livejournal.com]

I would highly recommend it! Just not in any week when you had any plans of getting anything else done. >.>

[miconazole.livejournal.com]

What is it with Homestuck, apparently it's been around for ages but all of a sudden everyone's reading it?

[rallamajoop.livejournal.com]

Snowball effect? Escape velocity achieved? Something like that.

It's only been around for a couple of years really, and it took a long time to get around to introducing most of the characters the fandom seems to get really excited about. That probably explains some of the explosion.

[harveystoat.livejournal.com]

Heh - we were those 14 year- old AIM users!

[rallamajoop.livejournal.com]

I would claim that at least I was never one of the puberty-ridden, homophobic variety with the strong options about comic books, but it's possible I would be lying. >.>

Well, I wouldn't be lying in the strictest sense, but mostly because I didn't have regular Internet access from any computer on which I could have installed AIM until I was around 17 or so. Occasionally I am grateful for this.

[harveystoat.livejournal.com]

Actually, if we're being completely honest - replace "homophobic" with "squirming and confused" and "comic books" with "Lain" and I think that's 14 year- old me.

[rallamajoop.livejournal.com]

By my own logic I didn't have to go as far as Lain because I was equating "comic books" with "manga", or possibly quantifying "strong opinions about" as "manga are so much better than-", and I definitely did my share of being "squirming and confused", so yes, that's about dead right.