The intermission is over, and we’re back to our regular cast for Act 4!

This week: John explores a gloomy planet covered in glowing mushrooms, where talking salamanders spew cheeky RPG-style exposition. The shouty grey troll outside of time learns some things about this human emotion called friendship. Jade makes a mess of things. Pages 3258 to 3306.

There’s also:

The game that makes up the bulk of this week’s “reading”

Neil Cicierega’s “guides” to the alien races of Star Trek and Star Wars, which only came up as a tangent based on a tangent, but, listen, a one-bullet list looks kind of lame and these are pretty funny

Next week: We see what John just saw from a very different point of view. Rose explores a weird planet of her own, guided by voices in hear head. The clock is ticking on Dave’s meteor, and Jade falls asleep. Pages 3307 to 3401.

Ask us questions on Tumblr or Twitter!Find us on Libsyn or in the iTunes store!Your hosts are renowned dog liker and wordsmith Alex (Tumblr, Twitter) and professional amateur sky photographer Lydia (Tumblr, Twitter).

Homestuck, as always, is created by Andrew Hussie.Intro music: “Showtime (Original Mix)” - Malcolm Brown.Outro music: “Showtime (Piano Refrain)” - Malcolm Brown, arr. & performed by Kevin Regamey.