The Felt are a rival gang of the Midnight Crew on the planet Alternia. While the Midnight Crew have a playing card theme, the Felt are based around the game of pool. Each member is green in appearance and has a hat with the color and number of one of the 15 pool balls. 7 and below are solid colors, 9 and up are striped, and 8 is solid black. Their headquarters is an entirely green mansion. The name of the Felt and the recurring use of the color green both evoke the green felt cloth that lines a pool table. According to Caliborn, their "skin" also feels like the felt material used for pool tables. Many of the Felt have time-altering abilities - or at least believe that they do - and also have an obsession with clocks and timepieces, possessing one thousand clocks, all of which Spades Slick has vowed to destroy.
The entirety of the Felt (except Snowman, Doc Scratch, and Lord English) with Spades Slick and Ms. Paint.
The 1-7 and 9-15 members of the Felt are leprechauns who originally come from the dead session played by Caliborn, the past version of Lord English. As he begins to unlock new planets, a new minion is unlocked on each one, each wearing a pointy cap bearing the same number and color as their future headwear. They initially lack names, and Caliborn calls them things like "yellow hat" and "blue hat"; Andrew Hussie is the one who suggests
that they be given mobster-themed names, because "“mobsters are cool”."
At the end of the Midnight Crew intermission, all of the Felt except Snowman, Lord English, and Doc Scratch are dead, at least in the timeline Spades Slick finds himself in, though several of the "dead" numbered Felt come back during Act 5 Act 2's Scratch interlude due to their time-travelling abilities.
Spades Slick had previously made it his personal mission to murder them all, on top of the Midnight Crew's primary mission of plundering Lord English's secret vault. After the destruction of the A2 universe and Andrew Hussie's death, however, Slick used Die's doll to revive the Felt (save for Snowman, who he claims reviving “could have some really weird consequences”) under his command. He recruits Ms. Paint to serve as the gang's new 8-ball member.
There is a poster of the Felt in Dave's room which he uses to make the Felt Duds.
During [S] Collide, the entirety of the Felt is defeated, except for Crowbar and English.
Members
Pool Cue - Lord English
- Main article: Lord English
Lord English is the leader of the Felt, a demon from outside the troll universe and a matured version of the cherub Caliborn. His appearance and clothing are likely based on a pool cue. His name, following the Intermission, is always written with an animated pool ball cycle.
He apparently cannot be destroyed by ordinary means, but only through time-manipulation techniques. Named after the pool term 'english', meaning spin on the cue ball, and retroactively also named after Lord British from Ultima, who could only be killed by glitches and Easter eggs. He owns a Cairo Overcoat representative of the spacetime continuum (which is indicated by the damage that occurs to it when excessive amounts of time shenanigans occur), and a backup coat that may or may not possess the same qualities. In appearance, he is a hulking giant (easily ten feet tall) with a peg-leg, clawed digits and a skull-like head--features that he shares with Caliborn, his prior form. Symbolized by his cue-stick like leg, English is effectively the "cue" of the group, as he is the actor which drives forward events, using Doc Scratch in order to affect other individuals on his field of play. English is said to have control over time, and will be (was) summoned to the universe when it ends (ended) by a mysterious ~ATH code.
Cueball - Doc Scratch
- Main article: Doc Scratch
Doc Scratch has been seen in text form in chat with Vriska Serket and Rose Lalonde, using white text and no screenname. He is near omnipotent and near omniscient. His name is based on the term for pocketing the cue ball. Unlike the rest of the Felt, he was not introduced or even hinted to exist until Act 5; as he wasn't even on the Midnight Crew's hit list, it was unclear if he was considered a "formal" part of the gang (although a number of gang members are seen in his residence during Act 5 Act 2), until a Paradox Space comic, written by Andrew Hussie, placed him as the gang's second in command (Number 2)[1].
He is Alternia's first guardian, an entity meant to protect the planet on which they are born, as well as facilitate the planet's 'ultimate purpose'. It is suggested that he is a skilled manipulator, whether through overt (mind control) means, temporal inevitability, or simple psychological exploitation. Like Snowman, Scratch is different from the rest of the Felt in that his name is not printed entirely in green (the o is white, like a cue ball) and his skin likewise is not green (also white). His head doesn't look like a ball as much as a white hole in space. He does not bear any particular resemblance to the members of the Midnight Crew or the Felt, making him something of an oddball. This is due to how he was created: just as Becquerel was created by combining Halley with the “MEOW” code, Doc Scratch was created by combining Lil Cal and a Magic Cue Ball with 5 codes (“t1CK”, “t0ck”, “8r8k”, “H34DS”, and “honk HONK”). The white color from the cue ball colored his head (which appears much like the cue ball itself), as well as the rest of his skin.
Following his inevitable death, he becomes the vessel for none other than Lord English.
1 - Itchy
Named for "ichi," the Japanese word for one, and as an allusion to the cue sport term scratch. It is also an indicator of his demeanor; he appears tense and highly strung, as if he is loaded with caffeine (which he likely is, due to the aroma it is mentioned he leaves behind.)
Itchy has the ability to slow down time relative to himself, allowing him to act with blinding speed. This has enabled him to give Spades the slip repeatedly (and also allows him to cheat at cards).
Itchy used his abilities to sneak up on Clubs Deuce, free Doze and swap the Midnight Crew's hats around. Despite his lightning-fast speed, his reaction time seems lacking—Spades Slick was able to trip him up by simply sticking out one leg and waiting for him to stumble over it. Deceased after Spades had his way with him.
2 - Doze
Named for "dos", the Spanish word for two.
Doze has the ability to slow down time, but only for himself, which may also be related to his name (doze as in sleep). As such he is completely unfazable, a trait that comes in handy whenever he is captured, which is often. Doze was captured by Clubs Deuce and given a sound drubbing with Clubs' Crook of Felony. He was freed by Itchy, and began an incredibly slow escape. Clubs recaptured him, tying him up with a Stretch Armstrong doll and shoving him into his Battledrobe. He was later killed when Clubs Deuce put an explosive in his hat. The same explosion took out Trace.
Doze is also know as being "Very slow upstairs and downstairs" He is also much slower than the felt when doing certain things for example in **The Inaugural Death of Mr. seven** Crowbar is able to jump back to the moment when Doze begins to speak and Crowbar explains that Doze has not even began to open his mouth to speak.
3 - Trace
Named for "tres", the Spanish word for three, as well as his ability to retrace people's Past Trails.
Trace is skilled at infiltration, and has invaded the Midnight Crew's secret hideout multiple times. He can also interact with people's Past Trails, although if they are aware of his ability and that he is the culprit, they'll know for certain that he'll be at that very location in the future. He, like Fin, resembles a shark (a pool shark), and his ability is related to a shark's natural skill of following a source of blood in the water over a great distance.
Trace uses his abilities to harass Diamonds Droog from the future, revealing his future location. Trace then follows Clubs Deuce's trail through the mansion, finding Doze tied up in the hall. However, under Diamonds' directions, Clubs had left a bomb in Doze's hat. The resulting explosion kills both Doze and Trace.
4 - Clover
Most likely named for the four-leaf variety of that plant and his leprechaun-like personality and stature.
Clover is extremely superstitious, getting very worked up when Spades Slick attempts to destroy the Felt vault with Crowbar's crowbar. His power is being amazingly lucky. His luck apparently makes him very difficult to actually harm (he states that a gun pointed at him would probably just jam), although this hasn't been visibly tested. Likely functions as an accountant or brains figure, but is far from tight-lipped. He will gladly provide advice to anyone, even the rival Midnight Crew—if, that is, the person asking is able to solve one of his mindbending time-based riddles. Despite his stated immunity to grievous harm, he can still be enticed to help with less lethal instruments, such as a rolled-up newspaper—this renders his riddling somewhat moot.
Clover is assumed to be deceased in the final timeline Spades is sent to. It is possible that the opening of the vault caused enough bad luck to render his powers useless. He reappears after a while, so his luck didn't run out after all, unless time shenanigans were involved. He also has been shown to be in possession of one of Quarters' coins, namely the one allowing him and Quarters to switch places across timelines with a coin toss.
Due to his extreme almost never-ending luck, he is the only member of the Felt who has not died of natural causes. His luck has helped him avoid instant death situations, such as if the Felt and everyone else were to die. His luck always helps him avoid all non-avoidable death situations.
He was defeated by Karkat Vantas in Collide. He had his eyes flash with a star, a heart, and a horseshoe, hinting at having some sort of feelings for Karkat in response to that, although our knowledge of leprechaun romance is limited.
5 - Fin
Named after a slang term for US five-dollar bills, although the name also recalls his strangely shaped head. It is also possible that he is named for the Latin "fin", meaning "end". He also has notoriously sharp teeth, and, like Trace, resembles a shark. Indeed, his planet in Caliborn's session features themes of beaches, sharks, and dolphins. His name might also be a reference to this, as sharks and dolphins have fins.
Fin has a habit of scooping crimes planned by the Midnight Crew, much to Spades' chagrin. He does this by following people's Future Trails, much like how Trace follows Past Trails. By following someone's future trail to the end, Fin is able to know the location of that person's death, hence his name; he has never been seen putting this ability to good use. In fact, he may not even be aware of these ramifications. Because Fin leaves evidence of his past whereabouts and actions, Diamonds Droog was able to interact with Fin from the future, suggesting that it might have been possible to do the same with Trace (albeit much harder to predict where to strike and when). Fin died of blood loss resulting from the injuries inflicted by Diamonds Droog.
6 - Die
Named for the number of sides on a standard cubic die, and 'die' as in death.
Die carries a voodoo doll, and a number of pins, corresponding to both the Felt and the Midnight Crew. When a pin is inserted into the doll, the holder is warped to an alternate timeline defined by the death of whoever the pin corresponded to, although the nature and time of death vary greatly. Die uses this skill to settle grudges with other members, by warping to timelines where they are no longer alive. Since every member so far has died of Midnight Crew-based complications, this usually causes him to appear close behind whenever a member of the Felt is murdered. When Die attempted to get rid of Spades Slick via this method, he found himself on the barren post-Hivebent Alternian landscape - affording Slick's assertion that he "made this town" a more literal meaning. He pulled Slick's pin shortly after, reappearing in the current timeline, where Spades Slick helped him live up to his name.
The way Die's voodoo doll works has varied at different points in the story; when Die and Slick used it during the Midnight Crew intermission, it transferred the user to a timeline where death either had or hadn't occurred, including a (sometimes drastically) revised history stemming from that changed event.
When Slick later uses it to bring the Felt back to life in Act 6, it simply revives them without shifting him to a noticeably different timeline. The reasons for this are unknown, although it's possible the fact they were located in the Furthest Ring has something to do with it. Since all Timelines seem to converge in the Dream Bubbles, it is also arguable that there might be one single Timeline for the entirety of the Furthest Ring, thus allowing Jack to simply revive the Felt. In addition, the erratic and often arbitrary nature of hussiespace, where Hussie's Mansion, the location of the felt's revival, exists, could also be an explanation.
7 - Crowbar
Named for the similar shape of a crowbar and a 7. The word "crowbar" also has seven letters in it.
Crowbar carries an actual crowbar with the power to destroy any temporal artifact it strikes, and completely negate that object's effect on the timeline in the process. Caliborn, after gaining his services and conversing with him, mentions that he is highly personable and intelligent, and even admits to liking him slightly (which is highly surprising). As such, Caliborn seems to have made him his right-hand man, overseeing much of the Felt, so efficiently that Spades Slick describes him as "running the show."
Crowbar was killed prior to the intermission, but Spades met him again in an alternate timeline when he started monkeying around with Die's voodoo doll. Spades bludgeoned the alternate timeline Crowbar and stuffed him into his Warchest, bringing him 'back to life', in a sense, in the original timeline. Was missing in time, along with the original Sawbuck, when they accidentally shot one another, but Slick sorted things out when they reappeared. After his death, Spades used his crowbar to put an end to Eggs' and Biscuits' shenanigans, in addition to bludgeoning Matchsticks to death in Scratch's apartment.
Slick later broke one of Scratch's clocks with the crowbar which may have killed Vriska, or coincided with her death.
Crowbar's crowbar was confirmed to be a Juju Breaker in Openbound Part 2, where a version of it was unearthed from a chest by Kurloz Makara. It is unknown if this is the version seen in the Intermission. Its also highly possible that this is the crowbar given by Gamzee Makara to Caliborn in Act 6 Intermission 4, which Caliborn then used to screw up the MSPA site by smacking the MSPA command tower, much to Andrew Hussie's displeasure. Presumably, this is the same crowbar that would be used by Crowbar himself, as suggested by this conversation. He later appears in Hussie's house, guiding Spades Slick, Ms. Paint, and the rest of the Felt through it.
Crowbar's crowbar was last shown when Caliborn destroyed Scratch's clock which means as the clock can no longer tilt into Just and Heroic deaths, effectively shattering Caliborn's capability of death while in god tier.
Alongside his trademark crowbar, he has also used an uzi, most notably in Collide.
8 - Snowman
- Main article: Snowman
Snowman was originally the Black Queen from the trolls' game session. She was dethroned by Jack Noir and the Red Team. She became an exile and took the name Banished Quasiroyal. She was then approached by Doc Scratch, who presumably recruited her into the Felt, giving her the identity of Snowman.
Named for the slang for pocket 8's in poker. Could also be a reference to the similarity in shape between a snowman and the number '8', or possibly a pun ("she's Snowman" is almost a homophone of "she's no man" being the only Felt member who isn't male.). Her name is also possibly intended as an ironic reversal of her black complexion as a distinctive feature among the Felt members. Her number could also be appropriate, as the 8-ball is the only black one in the pool. She is the only female member, and one of the three whose name is not printed entirely in green; the "o" is printed in black, making the "o" look like an 8 Ball itself, in the same way Doc Scratch's name reflects his white complexion and cue-ball theme.
While she lacks the time-manipulation powers of other members of the Felt, killing her would destroy the universe, corresponding to the automatic loss in pool resulting from a player sinking the eight ball before all his or her other balls have been sunk. As a result, everyone is obligated to cease any gunplay (and presumably any other dangerous activity) when she's around.
However, she was shot directly through the heart by Spades Slick in [S] Cascade, last seen laying in a pool of her own literal blue blood. The repercussions of this include the end of the trolls' universe, and accounting for half of the Green Sun's power.
Just as the B1 White Queen was able to command that session's Seer of Light, Snowman is related to her session's Seer of Mind and Thief of Light, and commanded them both as the Banished Quasiroyal.
9 - Stitch
Named for the scar on his face, as well as the phrase "a stitch in time saves nine" and the fact that he is a tailor.
Stitch has the ability to fix temporal entropy which manifests itself as rips and tears in the fabric of Lord English's Cairo Overcoat(s). He carries two pins, which are similar to Die's pins, except that they are white with yellow stripes, which would make them correspond to Stitch. He has an assortment of effigies in his workshop, which correspond to the members of the Felt (and after some cajoling, Slick and Droog as well.) These effigies display how the person they represent is wounded, and become scorched and black should that person die. They can be used to remotely heal whoever they correspond to by stitching up the cuts in the fabric, or to inflict harm by immolation. Duplicate effigies also appear to accommodate time duplicates—Eggs and Biscuits have their effigies stored in a separate warehouse to accommodate the many, many copies they create.
Stitch was imprisoned by Diamonds Droog, someone who, appropriately enough, could be considered "dressed to the nines". Droog forced him to build effigies for the Midnight Crew and sew up Slick's injured eye. He attempted to burn the effigy while they were distracted but was killed by Slick. Oddly enough, an alternate-timeline Stitch was also killed by Slick and stored in the Wrathtub of an alternate Hearts Boxcars.
10 - Sawbuck
Named after a slang term for US ten-dollar bills; the "X" shape of the device of the same name used to hold wood to be sawed into smaller pieces corresponds to the Roman numeral X (10).
Whenever Sawbuck is wounded, he and his attacker are sent to a random point in the current timeline. Knocking him out via asphyxiation does not seem to trigger this effect, however it does seems to apply to not only an initial injury, but also removal of the offensive object. He is apparently very hard to severely injure, as Spades states he can only ever seem to inflict flesh-wounds. This may be related to his temporal ability, although if it is, there's no implication as of yet how it makes him so resilient; it may just be because of his corpulence. A possible explanation is that the initial damage from any wound (at point of entry) triggers his ability before the attack that hit him is able to deal its full damage, though Snowman's Cigarette Holder Lance remains deeply punctured in him during multiple timeline jumps initiated by Spades Slick, as well as additional stabbing weapons in subsequently occurring occasions.
Spades Slick carried an alternate Sawbuck back from another timeline while mucking around with Die's voodoo doll, before beheading both the original Sawbuck and his duplicate (along with an alternate Crowbar) with one swing of his rapier wit.
11 - Matchsticks
Named for the shape of the number 11, and for a source of fire, which he uses and fights against. The word "matchsticks" also has eleven letters, and the two 'stick'-like digits of his ball number 'match'.
Matchsticks was already deceased by the time the intermission began, although later on he was seen with a fire extinguisher in Doc Scratch's burning room. According to Andrew's Formspring, he can travel to any time and place in the timeline by using fire as a gateway. He keeps a fire extinguisher with him so he can put out the fires and prevent any more of him from arriving, unless he wishes to exploit the fire for battle purposes. A fire alarm in Scratch's room, and possibly other such fire alarms in the mansion, can be used to summon Matchsticks. He was killed (possibly being his sole cause of death in the timeline, with him having been summoned forward in time, never to return) in Scratch's room by Spades Slick.
12 - Eggs
Named for the most notable product served in a dozen, and his egg timer.
Eggs is a dangerous moron. He can use his egg timer to travel back in time by increments up to one hour. Eggs can thus become a one-man fighting force, with each incarnation a little more damaged than the last. According to Andrew Hussie, Eggs may branch off into a new timeline each time he goes back, as opposed to staying within the same timeline. Eggs potentially has no limit to how many time clones of himself he can have — this is vexing to friend and foe alike, as this senseless warping creates quite an unstable time loop, leaving his comrades (specifically, Stitch) to deal with the collateral damage.
With his egg timer destroyed by Spades Slick's judicious application of a crowbar, Eggs was left without any time-clone backup and, subsequently had his head bitten off his shoulders by Hearts Boxcars.
13 - Biscuits
Named for a baker's dozen, and his oven.
Biscuits is another dangerous moron. He believes that his oven allows him to travel forward in time (like Eggs' eggtimer allows him to travel back) if he sets the timer and climbs inside. He believes that when the timer rings and he exits the oven, he will appear in the future the same amount of time later as the timer was set to. Of course, this means he just sits in there waiting for the timer to ring. Tends to team up with Eggs, who takes Biscuits back in time with him by holding the oven (with Biscuits in it) when he does so. According to Hearts Boxcars, unless Eggs does this, Biscuits is little trouble.
For most of the intermission, he and his companion Eggs, backed by numerous time clones of themselves, were pestering Boxcars. Following the elimination of these time clones and the death of Eggs, Biscuits fled to the "safety" of his oven. He was killed in the future after Clubs Deuce put a time bomb into his oven, and is considered deceased (although technically he was alive and hiding uselessly in his oven for some time, until the present caught up to when the bomb went off).
A common theory about Biscuits's oven is that its oven chamber halts timeflow for those inside it. Although the comic stated officially that the oven didn't have time properties, the very next page seems to hint otherwise.
- “You set the bomb to go off in a few seconds, when both it and Biscuits are released from it in a few hours.”
Note that Clubs Deuce appeared to have plenty of time to cart the oven to a safe location to detonate despite setting the bomb's timer for only a few seconds. This also explains why Biscuits did not flee his oven in a panic after the bomb was introduced (being in suspended animation made him unaware of its presence). The fact that Crowbar's crowbar did not negate this property probably has less to do with a perceived lack of time properties and more to do with the fact that the oven was not destroyed (only dented), or perhaps it's because the time properties of the oven are only functional for the interior.
Interestingly, the oven seems to have unlimited space inside. Or, at least, a lot more than it would appear to have when seen from outside. People who walk into the oven may be entering a different dimension.
14 - Quarters
Named for "quatorze", the French word for fourteen. Also a reference to the American 25-cent coin, and the writing of one quarter as ¼.
Quarters apparently constituted a portion of the Felt's "muscle", but was already deceased by the time the intermission began. He somehow appears again in Doc Scratch's room a short time after Matchsticks. According to Andrew's Formspring, Quarters possesses a collection of quarters bearing the images of pool balls. If a coin is tossed, the Felt member corresponding with the side that faces up will be summoned from some place in space and time. If the member on the other side is present, the two will switch places and times. If a member tosses their own coin and gets his own number, they will die. Quarters lets Clover keep his coin because Clover is so lucky that he will never get his own number. Members 1 through 5 share their coin with the member with their own number plus ten. 6 shares with 9, 7 with 10, and 8 with herself. Thus, the double-8 coin has two special traits: it can easily be used to summon the conflict-halting Snowman, and letting her toss it is highly inadvisable.
Quarters wields a minigun with an insane amount of bullets, which was used to kill Spades Slick. In the process, he also destroys the model of Skaia in its current form (whether this is some kind weird foreshadowing or not is unclear). However, the killing of Slick is seen as an alternate timeline through Snowman's mind, and she interferes by killing Quarters before he can turn Slick into Swiss cheese. Quarters' hat ironically lands on the model.
15 - Cans
Named for "quinze", the French word for fifteen.
Cans is an enormous brute whom Spades regards as a challenge to kill — he doubts they brought enough ammo. Cans was the last surviving member of the Felt to be revealed in the central timeline, when he made his entrance in a display of prodigious strength Kool-Aid Man style. OH, YEAAHH! He has the ability to literally punch (or, rather, "clock") his enemies into next week; when he hits Diamonds Droog, Droog is sent a week into the future, where he is in the middle of grocery shopping. He also manages to clock Hearts Boxcars into a completely different calendar (year).
Cans is deceased in the final timeline Spades is sent to.
Trivia
- Quarters' coins link pairs of Felt members. Some are relevant pairings, others don't make much sense. Die and Stitch have a similar power, with their destructive/healing voodoo doll and effigies. Doze and Eggs make a pair of morons with a funny duo name (dozen eggs!). Itchy runs around so fast he probably starts fires sometimes, while Matchsticks puts them out.[2] The number pairings also match the number pairings of English's billiard ball eyes.
- Another theory for Quarters' coins link pairs are that they may be solely based on the arrangement on the Midnight Crew 's mugshots of the group. The top row is paired directly to the bottom row (Itchy with Matchsticks, Doze with Eggs etc) skipping over the middle row. Excluding Snowman, the middle row coin pairs with the member after the 1st member in the sequence (Die with Stitch and Crowbar with Sawbuck). This would make the pairs based on the numerical positioning of the members rather than their abilities.
- Andrew has stated that the Past and Future Trails of Trace and Fin were inspired by the Future Trails from the movie Donnie Darko.
- The Felt's various jujus turned up as treasure in the dream bubbles, including Crowbar's crowbar, Biscuits's oven, and the calendar that Hearts Boxcars was clocked into by Cans.
- The three Felt whose planets were swallowed by the black hole at the start of Caliborn's session (Crowbar, Matchsticks, Quarters) are also the three Felt who were already dead at the start of the Intermission.
- The number of buttons on the Felt's original leprechaun outfits corresponds to their hat number. This rule does not hold true for their mobster outfits, however.
- The Felt's mansion is based on the real world picture of Carson Mansion, located in Old Town, Eureka, California.
- Biscuits' oven being 'bigger on the inside' is possibly another of the many Doctor Who references in Homestuck, especially about the Felt.
- The Felt's residence at Felt Manor may be inspired by how, during the Middle Ages, the economical center for peasants was their manors, which are each headed by a lord.
- On MSPA page 7777
, B2 Jack Noir's eyes are in Crowbar's color.
Speculation
- The presence of Karkat's Computer Terminal within the vault indicates that the Felt Manor is possibly built at the former location of Terezi's hive. The significance of this, if any, is yet to be seen.
- Lord English's coat, when first shown, has a total of fifteen tears on it. It's possible that these correspond to the Felt, and could also mean that the members of the Felt are linked to various breaks and glitches in timespace.
- The pattern and interior color of the coat are also similar to that of Vriska's pirate coat. That coat was retrieved by Kurloz Makara just after she dropped it, likely to be alchemised with something before being given to Caliborn.
