- “The keyboard is adapted from a diagram of a Mac keyboard. I like to think that if Steve Jobs lived a little longer, he would have incorporated a giant green ==> button into all Mac keyboards. And then knowing his penchant for simplicity, would have gradually phased out all the other keys.”
- — Homestuck Book 2 commentary.
A recurring device found in various laboratories and bases throughout Homestuck. They feature four screens arranged in a square with a house-shaped frame and a Mac-style keyboard (with the addition of a large [==>] key.) The terminals are seemingly used by the Exiles to monitor Sburb sessions and submit commands to the player, and they may serve more purposes, such as controlling the Skyship Base. A similarly-built terminal can be found underneath the Felt's mansion, locked inside Lord English's vault, but with 12 monitors, used to command the trolls. The "==>" button appears to translate to 'continue with the story', but can also be used to control the settings of the base itself.
The suspected monitor arrangement of the trolls.
The terminals are color-coded; the one in the Helipod Base, which sprouted from John's former location, is blue, while the one in the Skyship Base, which sprouted from Rose's former location, is purple.
The MC Intermission and Hivebent terminals do not accept the "==>" command, as it doesn't have enough equals signs to match the twelve trolls. Slick is therefore forced to type an additional four equals signs before pressing the button each time he wishes to issue the "======>" command.
Although it was previously thought that this indicated that the minimum number of players is four, Calliope and Caliborn's session has only two players, which has been confirmed as the minimum. It would appear that Caliborn and Calliope's session's "exile" is the author Andrew Hussie (although he outright states that he is not), further adding to the unconventionality of their session. They also act somewhat like Exiles for the B2 session. A long walk away from his meteor, Caliborn found a large radio tower with several monitors attached. After using keys to unlock a few of the monitors it's revealed that he can not only monitor the players of the B2 session, but the session's Jack Noir as well.
These Computer Terminals appear to automatically shut
off when the player ascends to god tier.
Player-monitoring terminal layouts
Trolls
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Homestuck Kids
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Grey boxes in the troll layout indicate positions that are suspected from the trolls' server chain, but which have not been confirmed as correct.
Known Terminals
Earth Exile Bases
Peregrine Mendicant standing in front of an SBURB base HID.
- The Skyship Base's Terminal - The first HID seen. It was discovered by the Wayward Vagabond in 2422 with low power and was used to command John Egbert. It had four screens, of which the three that were seen showed the other Homestuck Kids.
- The Helipod Base's Terminal - This is the second HID seen. It was discovered by the Peregrine Mendicant. This base appeared to have the same functionality of the Skyship Base; unfortunately it was damaged due to the Peregrine Mendicant. She referred to it as a "station" and the computer itself as a "terminal".
- The Eggy-Looking Base's Terminal - The Eggy-Looking Base has not been examined yet, but it undoubtedly contains an HID, as Rose receives messages similar to John's. It was apparently discovered by the Windswept Questant.
- The Bec Head Base's Terminal - The third HID seen. It was discovered by the Aimless Renegade. He attempts to command Dave Strider to take down Bec Noir, but only manages to make him say things against his will.
Alternian Exile Bases
- The Terminal locked within Lord English's vault. - At the end of the Midnight Crew Intermission, Spades Slick found an HID with the same style but the Monitor bank showed 12 monitors in a 4x4 grid with a monitor missing from the corner of every side of the square. One of these monitors displayed Karkat Vantas.
- Other terminals, including one in a crab-shaped base, one in a mother grub skull base, and one in an unknown base at the former location of Vriska's house. - Clubs Deuce was able to command Sollux from inside some sort of giant crab, before Sollux destroyed it with his psychic powers in a way similar to the destruction of PM's terminal. Snowman was seen at the remains of Kanaya's hive, indicating that she is Vriska's exile, but she soon switched to controlling Terezi by typing "==> SWITCH 2". Hearts Boxcars was able to advise Tavros. Diamonds Droog was seen giving Aradia the "Make her pay." command in yet another terminal (presumably at the location of Nepeta's hive) while smoking and enjoying his smut.
Other
The terminal inside Caliborn's command station.
- Ectobiology Lab Terminal
- A terminal on the Trolls' meteor, operated by Calliope.
- MSPA command tower operated by Caliborn.
- The terminal inside Caliborn's command station.