==> (GameFAQS tinyurl links): "Vade mecum" means manual or reference book. The original tinyURL redirects no longer work, unfortunately.

i shall take my leave now john. until next time: You've just witnessed the awesome origins of Crumplehat.

Rose: Answer Dave.: The "Saw/Muppet Babies" comic battle refers to "Cheerfulbear - PLAY ME", which we'll dive into later. And the person who Hussie talks about is probably whoever Cheerfulbear was.

Doing "acrobatic fucking PIROUETTES" becomes a recurring phrase.

John: Answer your chums.: RETCON WATCH: Oil splattered on the cabinet behind the bathtub. Yes, that oil wasn't originally there. In fact, a lot of the oil retcons around John's house are essentially indistinguishable from the real oil splatters the shale imps are leaving everywhere.

==> (539): RETCON WATCH: Blob of oil at the bottom left.

==> (545): Years from the 90's where April 13 fell on a Monday: 1992, 1998. Dates of meteor landings in modern times: December 1 (Crocker factory destroyed), 3, 4 of 1995; April 13 of 1996 (Nanna's death, John's arrival). You can see how this present a conundrum.

"Shortly after 4 A.M." (ie 4:13) similarly does not match with the time of any of these meteors (except Rose's which landed offscreen at an "aquatic laboratory". So we might conclude the article doesn't correspond to any babies' arrival.

Funny thing: in the books, there's a border around panels that covers up a tiny bit of their edges, making it look like it could possibly also be April 15 in the paper instead of 13, which would match the year 1996.

RETCON WATCH: Oil on the newspaper photo.

John: Turn the card over.: The same numbers as the code found through Trickster Mode in the walkaround! What could it mean? (Nothing, they were just random numbers this time).

John: Throw hat down in disgust.: The crumpled hat WILL return.

Dave: Ignore Lil Cal and find the beta.: Another poster of Sawtooth and Squarewave.

Dave: Take expensive ninja sword.: Reference to the "What pumpkin?" gag from Jailbreak.

==> (saw comic): I'm fairly certain the person pretending to be Jigsaw was Michael Firman, but it could have been anyone. Especially Hussie himself. You can peruse the whole saga here: https://mrcheeze.github.io/andrewhussie/Cheerfulbear%20-%20PLAY%20ME.htm but fair warning: there's pee and muppet baby sexual abuse involved.

==> (570): Just realized that Bro owns two separate Jigsaw puppets.

Dave: Captchalogue Buster Sword from behind microwave.: The Buster Sword is of course from "Final Fantasy VII". It's Cloud Strife's most iconic weapon (re: his "Smash Bros" appearances).

Dave: Set blender to "Crush Ice".: Also: That's a "Game Bro" fridge magnet holding up that SBaHJ panel.

==> (580): I feel like Dave's "DUDE DODGE" is supposed to go along with Rose's "YOUTH ROLL" and John's "LAD SCRAMBLE" from a few pages ago, and eventually Jade's "LASS SCAMPER".

Dave: Captchalogue each shuriken individually.: The Game Bro magnet gets stuck to the microwave.

==> (608): RETCON WATCH: Oil in the upper left corner.

Dave: Read the note on the hatch.: The note of course references SBaHJ #5.

Dave: Be the other guy.: Here's the other half of that Jailbreak command tradition/reference arriving in Homestuck.

==> (616): Pretty much everything that falls down to LOWAS shows up again eventually. ESPECIALLY John's bedsheets. But I think this is the last we see of his poor drawer.

John: Read book. Be the wise guy.: We need someone to buy this book so we can all be disappointed at how boring it is compared to this version.

==> (638): RETCON WATCH: Arm just chilling out in the empty void.

Rose: Pester John.: You'll notice this is the exact same drawing of John as when he was knocked on the floor by that imp.

[S] John: Sleep.: First appearance of the "Z" chat bubble to represent a sleeping character.

Music: "John Sleeps / Skaian Magicant" by Toby "Radiation" Fox in Homestuck Vol. 1-4
Remix of "Showtime (Original Mix)" by Malcolm Brown and "Skies of Skaia" by Mark Hadley

This flash originally had different music (I'll talk about Radiation later, when he makes his original debut as a contributor):

Music: "Skaian Dreams (Remix)" by Bill Bolin in Homestuck Vol. 2 (removed)
Remix of "Showtime (Original Mix)" by Malcolm Brown and "Skies of Skaia" by Mark Hadley

THE LOWDOWN ON BILL BOLIN: Bill Bolin, under the handle "Pleocoma" was among the first (or first-and-a-half) wave of music team artists. His style, which I'd describe as halfway between Radiation and Kali's, made his contributions a great fit for the comic, and many flashes were made to his music. Everything was going fine until Hussie decided to use "[S] Rose and Dave: Shut up and jam." as an opportunity to include a plethora of unfinished songs Bolin had posted to the private music team forums several months prior, mainly remixes of "Beatdown (Strider Style)". Bolin was outraged by the release of work he hadn't deemed finished yet, and diplomatic relations very quickly broke down from there. He left the team, and the flashes containing his music had to be retooled with new tracks. Oh yeah, and the whole argument got leaked: http://homestucktrashbin.tumblr.com/post/149514080112/for-posterity-bill-bolin-and-the-talk

Hussie's statement: "For a variety of reasons that aren't especially interesting, I won't be able to use work from one of the music team members. As such, I have disentangled some songs from a few existing animations, and have rescored those pages. I wish this artist the best of luck in whatever he chooses to take on next.

The silver lining is that in picking new music for the pages, I had the opportunity to match them up with pieces I've come to view as a better thematic fit for them. It's also pretty cool to see how new music affects the feel of the animations."