[I] ==> (1253): Our first look at the Cairo Overcoat, with a slightly different design than would be codified in its following appearances, most noticeably sporting big green buttons. And of course, we never see any spacetime patches on the coat LE wears. About the coat:

"The name and functionality was spawned completely from the Chicago Overcoat, which was the name of Mobster Kingpin’s flying pirate ship/office. Chicago Overcoat is also mobster slang for a coffin, therefore a Cairo Overcoat must refer to a Sarcophagus. (Which also happens to have a Terminator skull over the Pharaoh’s face.) LE’s ties to Egyptian lore in part trace back to a reference, through his attire obviously, to Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, a significant part of which takes place in Egypt. Also, more vaguely, the coat struck me as something that might be worn by one or more iterations of Dr. Who. And lest we forget the most obvious quality of its appearance, something that could easily adorn a pimp."

[I] HB: Call Spades for backup.: An example of a form of dialog uncommonly seen in Homestuck, usually during conversations between Dersite agents. They're actually directly talking to each other. Which in Homestuck is pretty rare.

[I] DD: Sneak into Stitch's boutique.: This page provides the title for the Intermission.

[S][I] ==>: At this time, all we've seen of the Black Queen is her hand. The shot of Spades being maimed uses the same hand, and is the link for readers to draw the conclusion that she's related in some way to the 'Glorious Monarch'. Also, the Black Queen's hand becomes a recurring shot, even when the Condesce takes over that role. Finally, we get a few more uses of the 'Blood Spade', including as the 'restart flash' button, one of the first times that the standard flash controls are played with.

Music: "Three in the Morning" by Clark Powell in Midnight Crew: Drawing Dead

Clark "Plazmataz" Powell has released several independent albums and composed the soundtrack for "Battle Chasers: Nightwar".

[I] SS: Kill something out of rage and frustration.: Saber-rattling is an idiom meaning an implied threat, such as when one would threaten to draw or use their saber. In this case, it's a literal saber rattle.

RETCON WATCH: Arm to the left.

[I] SS: Just go stab Sawbuck until the time shenanigans stop: This time, the 7 of spades transforms into the Bait and Switchblade mid-stab.

[I] SS: Take a moment to think up some time-based one-liners: Literally uses his Double Edged Sword to deliver his 'double-edged sword' pun.

[I] PSS: Remove Crowbar's pin.: A 'P' is appended to Spades' initials to indicate he is in the past, possibly a prototype of how Trollian/Pesterchum memos deal with communication across times.

[I] ==> (1290): RETCON WATCH: Big splash of oil on the wall.

[I] ==> (1296): First instance of 'BLUH BLUH HUGE BITCH'.

[I] SS: Arm yourself, in case Cans shows up.: "She'll have to pry this thing from your rigid severed arm if she wants it back."

[I] ==> (1308): RETCON WATCH: Another 'jumble arm' jittering in the lower right quadrant of tha page.

[I] SS: CHARGE!: The album Midnight Crew: Drawing Dead was released at this time. This album was the first one to feature songs not directly made/used in Homestuck, and it kicked off the 'fake band' theme for albums with would be quickly replaced with a more general 'concept' line of albums about various aspects of the story. The cover art for the album is the same picture of the Midnight Crew seen on a poster in Dave's room.

"I had this idea to start making "fake bands" based on various characters from MSPA some time ago, back when the music project was starting up and I soon realized I'd have way more music on my hands than I could possibly use in the story. MC was the first such band, which guys in the music community started working on stuff for last summer. The whole thing got sidetracked for a while, but we decided to finish it over the course of the intermission for obvious reasons. It turned into a 19 song monster album, and I think all the songs came out fantastic, and really match the group's motif quite well.

The idea behind the fake bands was to put a spin on a certain genre, in a way that seemed in keeping with the characters and what sort of music they'd make. In MC's case the genre is something we've been referring to as "dark jazz".

I'd like to keep putting out more albums by more bands, with more interesting spins on musical styles to help develop characters and their universe. There certainly seems to be enough talent to keep it coming. I really wouldn't mind flooding you guys with awesome original music, even if I can't manage to work most of it into animated pages. Which obviously I can't. But projects like these albums are the next best thing."

[I] SS: Politely ask Clover to remain calm.: Sneaky 413 on the billiard balls to the right.

[I] ==> (1335): Horse calendars were used to schedule updates near the end of Homestuck's run. We all dearly miss update horses.

[I] ==> (1348): This exact shot of Jack is used as the final shot of [S] Jack: Ascend.

[I] ==> (1352): The donator that seeded the idea for the Midnight Crew actually created a non-canon leader for it, Professor Mayonaka, together with a non-canon fanventure about the Felt. This page used to feature Mayonaka's pendant on the floor, before Hussie covered it with ink later. More information is available here at Mayonaka's Ask Me Anything session https://www.reddit.com/r/homestuck/comments/9ilope/i_am_mayonaka_with_proof_ama/

RETCON WATCH: Mayonaka's pendant on the bottom-left of the page. FUN FACT: While the arm retcons were incorporated into the books from Topatoco book 3 onwards, the oil retcons have never been present in the books. This is the ONLY instance of an oil retcon that has been preserved in the book releases. The reason for this is as follows: ????????

[I] ==> (1353): Sgrub uses twelve squares in its logo, to match the twelve trolls, in contrast to Sburb's four squares. Since the shape of the squares is reminiscent of a standard four-pane window, and they are itself used as actual screens in the command terminals, AND in keeping with Sburb's close association with houses, many windows on Alternia (such as the one you see here) use this design.

[I] ==> (1354): The Alternian command terminals feature the standard alphabet instead of Alternian. Possibly because Hussie hadn't come up with the Alternian alphabet yet, and also possibly because this page simply reuses a page from when we were commanding WV, complete with pumpkin on the Ctrl key and all. (It happens again with DD commanding Aradia).

[I] yeah you: You can bet everything on this page was minutely analyzed by readers at the time. The crab lusus sprite is obviously related to the Cancer symbol on Karkat's shirt (Cancer is represented by a crab). The sickle motif is more obtuse: it's probably related to sickle cell disease, a mutation of the blood cells. This of course matches Karkat's mutant blood. This almost certainly means that the idea of the hemospectrum (and Karkat's mutation) was already planted in Hussie's head at this point.

[I] ==> (end intermission): Direct callback to when Jade visited MSPA (right before that Midnight Crew flash) and saw that shitty picture of John (note to self: when rewriting these notes don't fail to notice John is referred to as 'GT' on that page) at the end of an intermission in the fictional MC adventure, now at the end of an intermission in the real adventure.

TYPO WATCH: 'collosal'