Homestuck began on April 13th, 2009, the 13th birthday of our chief protagonist and future boy-skylark, John Egbert. Three days prior was supposed to be the day he received the Sburb Beta in the mail, but it was running late. It showed up later that afternoon, and after overcoming a variety of domestic adversities, he retrieved the game, along with a birthday package from his internet friend, Dave Strider.
John soon established a game connection with another friend, Rose Lalonde, who 'd spent the day badgering him about playing with her, after unsuccessfully attempting to convince Dave to play. Upon connecting, Rose was able to manipulate John 's environment, move his furniture around via cursor, and restructure the shape of his room.
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The server copy was trapped in his dad 's car, along with a birthday package from another friend, Jade Harley. Jade messaged John inquiring about the package. As of this moment, neither her package nor the server copy has been recovered by John. Rose had also prepared a package for John, but had not mailed it yet. It still sits in her room. Dave 's package contained the authentic stuffed bunny from Con Air.
In addition to allowing Rose to control John 's environment, Sburb provided an array of devices Rose deployed throughout John 's house. These devices used together provided a system by which the players could manufacture any item using the code on the back of that item 's captchalogue card, if they gathered enough grist to pay for it. Later, they would learn to combine item codes to master the art of punch card alchemy, whereby items could be fused together in purpose and design.
One device on being activated began a countdown, and released an entity called a kernelsprite. The countdown ticked down to the moment John 's house would be struck by a meteor, destroying his neighborhood. To escape this demise, John had to use the devices to manufacture a special item that looked like a blue apple, and take a bite of it, in order to transport his entire house just before impact to the safety of a mysterious dark realm, where his house would situate itself atop a tall rock column high above a blanket of clouds. This realm is called