Known Probabilities
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Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? |
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| This page evokes events, places or characters originating from probabilities. Do not get lost in the abyss of possibilities. |
In Vast Error's mechanical terms, there exist infinite hypothetical futures that branch off of different points in the story that are known as probabilities. This page aims to list all probabilities that are presented in the story and elaborated on beyond a simple showcase of its existence.
In Vast Error
Alt!Murrit: FAST-FORWARD.
This probability is the first (and currently only) to expound upon the main story in detail.
The assumed branching point of this probability is during Murrit's crafting spree where, instead of creating the Retrogauntlet and going backwards in time, Murrit creates a viewmaster capable of viewing and interacting with any and all other probabilities — the Duodechaxiom. This decision is made through the instructions of a deliberately unnamed third party, setting this Murrit off of the true timeline and onto their own path.
In this probability, the ultimate goal of the game is rendered incompletable, and thus the party's only option is to fight Gaiaeon head-on. To this end, Murrit spends the thirty-two allotted nights searching through probabilities for a way to circumvent their inevitable demise, only to find that one such probable outcome will ever succeed: the true timeline.
By the end of the session, all remaining life in the Solitary Universe has united to face this threat: the entire party has achieved self-actualization and have trained rigorously to reach their highest possible states of fighting prowess, preparing for the final battle alongside armies of trolls and carapacians — the trolls led by Sestro Enthal, Hamifi Hekrix, Racren Innali, Turnin Kaikai, Necron Exmort, and Oricka Rourst alongside very notably non-cult versions of Edolon Vryche, Talald Hieron, and a living Seinru Narako, with the carapacians being led by the Vigilant Protector, the Exonerated Executor, and the White King.
The confrontation ends abruptly and brutally, with all but Murrit destroyed and rendered completely unrecognizable. Murrit flees from Gaiaeon, racing through the ruins of multiple planets before reaching the Land of Murk and Quagmire, which ends up being a temporary blind spot from Gaiaeon. Murrit utilizes the last moments of her existence to hold a conversation 
with the true timeline's Laivan, passing on her story and expositing upon the concept of probabilities before facing the end.
In Intermission 2 Side 1
Vast Error: Intermission 2 Side 1 is the first part of the comic to elaborate on the concept of probabilities. Listed below are the alternate probabilities visited throughout the Hotel California as well as the alternate versions of the Dead Shufflers encountered.
Homestuck Intermission: "Don't Bleed on the Suits."
The first probability introduced is the first intermission of Homestuck, wherein "alternate versions of the Dead Shufflers" known as the Midnight Crew
infiltrate the mansion of their rival gang known as the Felt. The presence of multiple versions of these characters, however, quickly throws the story off-balance, much to the distaste of the story's own orchestrator.
This particular probability is revealed to be a load-bearing part of the entire Hotel California, likely due to the fact that Homestuck's Midnight Crew is the entire basis for the Dead Shufflers in the first place. Sure enough, when the probability collapses following the death of Snowman, the hotel is led to collapse.
The true implications of Homestuck's canonical coexistence with the narrative of Vast Error will forever go unspoken.
The Lively Stumblers
These Prospitian equivalents of the Dead Shufflers all hold a much jollier disposition than their Dersite counterparts, barring Clawback Declarant, who is far more vindictive than his alternate self.
The Pure Shufflers
One probability is founded upon the concept of the Dead Shufflers as players in a session of their own, having killed off the eight other players and reached self-actualization in the process. As a result of their unique circumstances, they rupture almost every probability they enter except the Green Room, which takes place in a universe that is home to the concept Pure Selves are based on in the first place.
Bloodswap
These Dead Shufflers had their blood swapped around by Mimesis (which, as everyone apparently knows, means swapping personalities as well), and now bear the faces, arms, and first names of the ones they had been swapped with.
Coffee Shop AU
After getting punched into the next fiscal quarter, Defrauding Dealer is shown running the counter at a coffee shop in a jab at the popular alternate-universe scenario present in many works of fanfiction. He exits the probability following a cheeky over-the-counter bit with Hustle Bones and the very prompt murder of his manager, which on its own does not disrupt the probability. (If you'd ever experienced a hard day's work in the service industry, you would know this to be a pretty common idea.)
Other
Listed on the Hotel California guestbook are multiple other Dead Shuffler variants who are not encountered, including the Waterworked Dead Shufflers, Angst Rattled Dead Shufflers, Elfstruck Dead Shufflers, Feathered Up Dead Shufflers, Heinous Dead Shufflers, Steampunker Dead Shufflers, Zombified Dead Shufflers, Inconsequential Dead Shufflers, Oil Tycoon Dead Shufflers, High School Dropout Dead Shufflers, Stabdad Shufflers, Burgerboy Dead Shufflers, Picasso'd Dead Shufflers, Uber Dead Shufflers, Idolized Dead Shufflers, Mini-Me Dead Shufflers, Unwrought Dead Shufflers, Reinvestigative Dead Shufflers, Delta Dead Shufflers, Conjoined Dead Shufflers, and Puppet Pal Dead Shufflers.
In Snowbound Blood
Volume 11: Follow after Aumtzi.
Towards the end of Snowbound Blood: Volume Eleven, one choice actually causes a branching path in the volume's story: save Necron, who is strapped to a ticking time bomb, or chase after Aumtzi who has taken the opportunity to escape. Saving Necron leads to the intended end of the route. If the player instead chooses to follow after Aumtzi, a narrative break begins to explain an urban legend Secily had once heard known as "paying the toll", where only one who is truly directionless may find a lone toll booth in the middle of a road, beyond which there will be no exits until they reach the place they're meant to go.
Following this break and a change in narrative point-of-view to distance this Secily from the true Secily, the consequences of this choice are revealed: Secily chases Aumtzi down and begins to beat him bloody before the bomb strapped to Necron goes off and kills him. Secily takes Proserpina and kills Aumtzi before attempting to retrieve whatever may remain of Necron.
After this, Secily gets on her motorcycle and drives, for an indeterminable amount of time, before reaching the aforementioned fabled toll booth. She pays the toll in the blood on her hands and begins to drive for endless weeks before she arrives at Eidolic Acres, where she once more meets Husske Mayzee. Husske, very visibly terrified of her, talks her down from killing them and makes it clear that they recognize that she is nothing less than a monster, and they do not stop her as she walks into the fields of corn. The static becomes overwhelming as Secily peers upwards and finds infinite eyes staring back, before everything is gone.
In other media
Perils Of Probability: The Technicolor Terror From Beyond The Hyperthetical!
This album tells a musically accompanied story through the lyrics pages of each track on Bandcamp or the DCRC music site, as well as some narration by Mimesis. The story follows a probability that has "lost all color and luster", where an alternate Serpaz Helilo hosts a party that quickly falls apart due to the group's lack of interest in each other. Outside, on the fire escape of her hive, Serpaz finds a strange creature, one that had manifested into this probability and one that has taken Serpaz's own form. The creature gives Serpaz a vial of its own blood and instructs her to have the whole party ingest in order to "make them remember how to have fun".
Upon lacing the blood into drinks for the entire party (save herself and Laivan) and handing them out, Serpaz watches as the substance overtakes all of her friends and drains them of any substance, leaving them blissfully saccharine and devoid of personality. She and Laivan follow their friends as they are led to the roof to be fed upon by the same creature she had seen before. After defeating the creature, their friends now scattered and lifeless, Serpaz offers Laivan a wary smile, one he does not return as he turns heel and leaves.