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vikkirosko · 4 years ago

Note

I loved the pining HCS you did a while back for the beta and alpha kids. do you mind pining HCS for the beta trolls?

Headcanons Pining for you

♋ Karkat Vantas x Reader ❤

Karkat will never admit that he misses you. When you left for a few days, he grumbled and was sure that he would not be bored. But he quickly realized that he was wrong

He missed you. He was worried that something might happen to you during your trip. He couldn't find a place for himself until your return

When you came back, Karkat seemed calm, but in his heart he was happy. He was happy to have you back. Only when you are alone will he quietly tell you that he missed you and couldn't wait for your return

♈ Aradia Megido x Reader ☠

When you told Aradia that you need to go away on business for a few days, she told you with a smile that you have nothing to worry about, and that you can safely go. When you left Aradia really missed you

Almost all the time that you were not around, Aradia spent with Sollux. During these few days, she managed to figure out what you will do when you return and told Sollux all this. Sollux himself couldn't wait for you to finally come back

When you came back, Aradia couldn't help but be happy. She hugged you tightly, telling you how much she missed you and that you must make up for the time you spent apart

♉ Tavros Nitram x Reader 🦽

You were very worried about leaving Tavros alone. You were worried about whether he would be all right, and even thought about not going anywhere. But Tavros has convinced you that he will be fine. Before you left, he said that he would miss you and you promised to return as soon as possible

Tavros really missed you. He tried not to bother you with his messages, because he knew that you would be busy. But every time he saw that you sent him a message, he couldn't help but smile

When you returned, Tavros greeted you with a happy smile. He listened with interest to your story about your trip, holding your hand in his. He was glad you were back

♊ Sollux Captor x Reader🐝

When you told Sollux that you were leaving for a couple of days, he didn't pay much attention. He didn't think he would notice your absence, but he noticed it quite quickly and quite quickly began to miss you and your care

He tried to immerse himself in writing code so that the time when you are not around flew faster. But every time his thoughts came back to you. He wanted to write to you several times and find out when you will return, but did not dare. He remembered that you said that you would be busy

When you returned, Sollux reacted quite calmly. He didn't want you to know how much he missed you. But you saw his weak smile perfectly well

♌ Nepeta Leijon x Reader🐱

Nepeta didn't want you to leave her alone. Even though she spent a lot of time alone, she was still very sad when you weren't around. But you had to leave her alone for a couple of days and you couldn't change that

All these few days that you were not around, Nepeta tried to occupy herself with something at least. She drew a lot, but every time her eyes fell on the drawing that you drew together, she began to feel sad with a new force

When you came back, Nepeta immediately jumped on you with a hug. She was happy that you were back. She didn't let you out of her arms while you told her about how your trip went. She was glad she wasn't alone anymore

♍ Kanaya Maryam x Reader🧵

Kanaya calmly accepted that you had to leave for a few days. You told her about this possibility, so it was not news to her. She wished you a pleasant trip and asked you to be careful

Even though she missed you, she knew perfectly well that this was normal. She knew that you would be back soon enough, so she decided to spend her time usefully and give you a small gift

When you returned, Kanaya greeted you with a soft smile and gave you an outfit made by her for you. You were glad of her gift. Kanaya hoped that this gift would help her show how much she missed you

♎ Terezi Pyrope x Reader 🐲

Terezi had nothing against your trip for a few days. She told you that you can safely go and not worry about anything. She wished you a good time

At first everything was fine, but the longer you were gone, the more Terezi missed you. She was bored and lonely without you. She was waiting for you to finally come back

When you came back, Terezi hugged you tightly. She was glad that you finally came back. She didn't think that she would be so lonely without you

♏ Vriska Serket x Reader 🎱

Vriska didn't want to let you go when you said that you had to go away on business for a few days. She was against you leaving, but you couldn't help but leave because you had an important thing that you needed to do

She resented you while you were away. But even though she was offended by you, she still missed you, even though she didn't want to admit it. But she was waiting for you to finally return to her from your trip

When you came back, Vriska didn't show that she missed you. But by the look of her, you understood everything perfectly. You just smiled at her and told her that you missed her too

♐ Equius Zahhak x Reader🥛

When you told Equius that you needed to leave for a few days, he didn't show that he was upset. He tried to stay strong and did not show that he would miss you

All the time that you were not around, he was outwardly absolutely calm, but in his heart he missed you. It was difficult for him to show emotions because of which others would consider him weak, but he really missed you

When you came back, Equius couldn't help but smile. He was glad you were finally back. Although he didn't show it, he was very happy that you finally came back

♑ Gamzee Makara x Reader 🎪

Gamzee was not against your trip. He hugged you for a long time before your departure under the pretext that he wants to remember your warmth for the entire time of your absence

All the time that you were gone, Gamzee spent in his hive, missing you. He was just passing the time until your return, trying to have a little fun

When you came back, he immediately took you in his arms. He wouldn't let you go, hanging on to you and saying that he missed you. His behavior could not but cause you a soft smile

♒ Eridan Ampora x Reader 🪄

Eridan really didn't want you to leave, especially for a few days. He was afraid that you would leave him. He didn't want to be alone, but you promised him that you would be back soon and that he could always write you a message if he was very sad

He missed you very much. He often wrote to you under the pretext that he was just bored, but in fact he really missed you. He couldn't find a place for himself. He couldn't concentrate on anything

When you returned, Eridan hugged you tightly and did not want to let you go for a long time. He was very afraid that you would leave him and never come back. He didn't want you to leave again

♓ Feferi Peixes x Reader 🐠

Feferi was happy for you when she found out that you were going to go for a few days to visit friends. She made you promise that you would have a good time even without her

Even though she asked you to have fun, but she missed you. She sent you messages or called you every day. You've been talking a lot. She often told you how much she misses you. She couldn't wait for you to finally come back

When you finally returned, Feferi did not hide a happy smile. She hugged you tightly and started asking questions about your trip. You were glad to have such a warm meeting. You knew how much she missed you, and you also missed her very much

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superskaian · 3 years ago

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Now that you’re finished reading, care to give a brief (or not so brief) overview of your thoughts on each character?

i did try to answer this on my main but i got overwhelmed with describing all of the characters! i have a tendency to ramble and prattle so the only way i'm getting through with this is with very. brief thoughts.

[roxy lalonde voice] lightning round go!

john- that's my friend he makes me smile c:

rose- manufactured in a skaian lab to destroy me specficially

dave- i feel very proud when i see him near the end of the comic. he managed to escape all that and i love him for it

jade- one of the characters i've shed the most tears over i want her to be happy so bad

aradia- wrath! of! the! lamb! aradia's arc is so good i love seeing her smile

tavros- he's very pathetic (affectionate). cheered for his ghost getting that big moment at the end

sollux- i do not remember very much about sollux. the bifurcation theme fucking slaps though

karkat- THAT'S MY FRIEND KARKAT I AM NEVER GOING TO FORGET KARKAT. THERE'S ONLY ONE STEP AND IT IS CRAB

nepeta- she's adorable and i'm kissing her on the mouth for drawing vriska ♠ terezi on her wall-

kanaya- I Love Kanaya So Fucking Much

terezi- blorbo. i post about terezi at least five times per day my feelings about her are the worst kept secret of my life. she makes me feel every emotion on the hemospectrum

vriska- years and years before i read this comic i thought i'd be a fan of hers. i was right. i loooooooove vriska. i have absolutely nothing normal to say about her

equius- he's funny c:

gamzee- i'm pretty sure his role in the overall scheme of things went entirely over my head. will pay more attention on my new game+. i fucking owe him for his relationship with terezi though thank you gamzee

eridan- also did not make much of an impression on me

feferi- i have an irrational emotional attachment to her

jane- she's bigender for real i make the rules.

jake- fucking lvoe the brain ghost man keep up the good work. normal boy behavior (affectionate)

roxy- manufactured in the same lab as rose to destroy me but in a different color

dirk-fucking lvoe the splinters man keep up the good work. normal boy behavior (very affectionate)

calliope- ough callie's my special friend

caliborn- i'm putting him in time out (affectionate)

i'm not listing all of the ancestors and dancestors just the notable ones

meenah- rotten girl. i really really like her.

aranea- one of the biggest surprises in the whole thing (absurdly affectionate). i'm making a whole list of things about aranea to obsessively study on new game plus

damara- oh my god damara is fucking cool

mindfang- i have nothing sfw to say about marquise mindfang.

redglare- my neck is right here 😩

the condesce- hhhhhhh trolls who do war crimes have the best pussy

jasprose- we bingewatch nekomonogatari white together and cry over never having a troll wife together

davepeta- ough theyre so cute

arquisprite- vriska i'm sorry i dont think he's very funny but i made you a list of all the different ways you can punish me and also i made a copy of that list in case something happens to the first one-

#hope that was worth the wait

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karkatwaddles · 4 years ago

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Gamzee and Me.

Hey everyone! This is a Murder or sober Gamzee fanfiction with the reader. I love writing fanfictions, and I was originally going to make this just a fanfiction for me, but I decided to share it to the world. Im really proud of it so I hope you all like it! Here we go! TW: Violence, Blood, Injuries, Sober/Murder Gamzee.

honk.

HONK.

honk.

HONK.

:o)

The honking had been happening for such a long while, not stopping no matter how far they ran, no matter where they went, the honking just continued. It filled the halls, all the rooms, and it would always get louder. They continued to run, running out of breath, legs hurting as if they would collapse if they took one more step. No matter how far, it felt as if the honking got nothing but louder and closer. It filled their head. Everything was chaos in the meteor, Nepeta, Feferi, Tavros, Eridan, and Equius, they were all dead. Sollux was blind, Kanaya was a rainbow drinker, and Gamzee had… gone insane. He was responsible for the deaths of Nepeta and Equius, and apparently, had been chasing down Karkat for such a long while. Speaking of which, he nor Terezi could be found, and Y/N just wanted to find someone alive….someone sane, they were scared and panicked, especially with the honking, the intense noise of the murderous clown-like troll basically following them. It filled their head, bouncing through their ears and not leaving them alone. As they ran, running through the dark halls, they put their hands over their ears.

“Fuck fuck fuck!” They said to themselves as they sprinted, as fast as they could, just trying to get away from what seemed to be Gamzee chasing them. Closing their eyes, shutting them tight, they were scared. The (insert blood color here) troll had been running for so long, going through this maze of a meteor. They weren’t even originally supposed to be here, but as the group of 12 trolls had decided to play the game of sgrub, they were dragged along, now stuck there without any way back to their planet. With what happened, their new world, their prize for beating the game was destroyed, they had been living on this meteor, talking to humans and such, trying to help them through their own game, but now, with the start of Gamzee going missing, everything had gone to the worst. More than half of them were dead, injured, or just bat shit crazy. The fear they felt in their chest was like a knife in their chest that kept getting yanked out over and over again.

Closing their eyes was probably the biggest mistake they had made. There was a reason why the honks seemed to be getting louder as they ran because as they did, they fell down a large flight of stairs. They let out a scream, hitting their bones in the hard edges, and even hitting their forehead. Soon enough though, they landed at the end of the flight, groaning as the pain of falling erupted their body. At least two ribs and his arm were broken, and now they had a gash on their forehead, blood running down their face.

“Shit..” They mumbled, sitting up against a wall, putting their hand against their bloodied head. They brought their arm out, looking at the blood on their hand before hearing another loud honk. It felt as if the honking had stopped while they were falling, and so when they heard the noise, they jolted, being startled. They looked down the hall, seeing a figure with long curled horns, holding clubs. Their eyes widened and they stood as quick as they could, running right back up the stairs, colored tears beginning to form in their eyes. They didn’t want to die. Apparently, they were heading towards where Gamzee was, and when Y/N had fallen down the stairs, he had been watching the whole time. The fear they felt, was even more intense now that they had seen him. The clown had blood all over him, from his face to his clothes. His eyes were red instead of the normal orange… he was a scary force to behold.

“Please….please…” They whispered, running and running, just wanting to get to someplace where they could hide. But as they ran, they ended up tripping on some random rubble, falling on their face. They curled up for a moment, holding their nose as a loud crack had come from their face as they fell. They broke their nose. A creepy chuckle was heard behind them, and they shot up, looking at the clown who was oh so close. Their eyes widened, tears beginning to fall down their face.

“Gamzee…please don’t hurt me.” They said as they scooted back, trying to turn and run again, but before they could even stand from the position they were in, their wrist was grabbed harshly by a bloodied hand. They whipped their head towards Gamzee who lifted them off the ground from their broken arm. They winced at the pain.

“...it hurts please..stop..” They said out of pure desperation to live. Tears streamed down their face as they struggled. They didn’t want to die, not here, and definitely not by Gamzee’s hands. Gamzee raised an eyebrow with his menacing smile.

“IT HURTS? well, maybe THE MESSIAHS wouldn’t have led me to you brother IF THEY DIDN’T WANT ME to motherfucking HURT YOU.” He said as he brought them closer to his face. They looked at him in the eyes, and with how close they were, Y/N brought their head back and then headbutted him harshly. It made them dizzy, sure, but it caused Gamzee to let go, and drop them. They hurried to their feet, sprinting off once more, and they could hear a slight growl from behind. That definitely angered the troll. They let out a shaken breath, running towards the place they originated from when they started running. They were mumbling to themselves about Gamz, thinking about how he would never...never hurt them right? This couldn’t be him, they were so close before this. He called them one of his best friends, and of course, Karkat was his Moirail, but he was just such a close friend to them. They felt so betrayed and so hurt, they just wanted to collapse right there, but adrenaline kept them going.

No matter how far they ran, the honking continued to close in. They ran into the main room, the original room they were all in, and there laid Feferi on the horn pile. Y/N was always close to Feferi and the others, so seeing her gone hurt, just as much as the betrayal of Gamzee. They quickly glanced around. That’s right, they almost forgot about Gamzee, and so they ran under one of the desks to hide. It was their best bet right now.

Then Gamzee came into the room. His footsteps, his honks, any noise he made, it felt like would destroy their eardrums each time. They put their hands over their ears, talking deep, quiet breaths, praying to themselves that he wouldn’t find them. Then the sound of chairs began to move, and so, they glanced up, and right there in front of them, his red eyes glared into them, into their soul. Their heart dropped, mumbling apologies and pleads to him, just wanting to survive.

They were pulled out of under the desk, being forced out into the open. They squeezed their eyes shut, causing more tears to fall, their breath quickening. Gamzee held them up once more by their wrist and he would chuckle a bit before throwing them into the opposite wall. They shouted out of pain, curling up against that wall, shaking and whimpering. They weren’t usually this weak, actually one of the strongest emotionally in the group, but this was a whole new level. Their heart was pounding in their chest, pain consumed them, and so did fear. They didn’t want this.

His footsteps were heavy as he began to walk back over to them, he would bring his club up, getting ready to hit them across the had for the last finishing blow to kill them, but something stopped him. He looked back, as someone had grabbed the club he was using, and there stood none other than Karkat Vantas. His eyes widened, and Gamzee would yank the club out of his hands, elbowing him in the stomach, causing the mutant blood troll to be pushed back, right onto the ground.

Y/N looked up at Gamzee, distracted by the other troll. Even with broken ribs, broken arms, a pounding head, they would stand. Using the wall behind them, gripping onto the rough rock, and would grab Gamzee by the collar of his shirt, causing him to whip his head back over to them, and they pulled him into a kiss. They always felt red feelings towards him, but this isn’t how they wanted to tell him. The troll’s eyes widened and he would slowly succumb to the kiss, putting his arm down, dropping the club, leaning into Y/N. They would separate themselves from him, mumbling an apology before hitting him right in the neck, knocking him out. He collapsed in their arms, and they would gently put him down as they too went to the ground, knees collapsing on them, and they would start to sob. Their entire body hurt from the emotions and physical pain they felt. Karkat’s eyebrows furrowed, walking over to them, looking down at the unconscious troll, he would sit next to Y/N.

“YOU DID GOOD. IT’S...GOING TO BE OK.” He said to them. Y/N said nothing and only curled up, putting their knees to their chest, wrapping their arms around themselves, sobbing into their arms. This was the worst day of their life. Karkat would wrap his arms around them in a comforting way...How could this happen? How could this become of them all? It was so..horrid.

#fanfiction #Gamzee Makara #Murder Gamzee #Sober Gamzee #Sober Gamzee makara #x Reader #Homestuck #self insert #Gamzee x reader

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fluorescencefuture · 5 years ago

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Homestuck^2: How I’d write the Omega Kids (and the Candy timeline villains)

I haven't reread Homestuck nor the epilogues in a while so correct me if I'm wrong with anything here. This was all in one go, too, so I probably missed something here or there. I'm also not a native English speaker so pardon some grammar errors.

In General

I’d give them a five-letter name scheme. Names of a group being the same length was a big deal in original HS (human first names had four letters, troll names had six, Ancestors had eight-letter titles, Cherubs had eight letters too, etc.), so it’s odd seeing this new group have names of varying length

I’d also give them all shirt symbols. It’s odd that something so iconic to Homestuck isn’t present in the new kids, either.

I'll write for both the canon post-canon with evil Jane and for my own version with different villains. Evil Jane happens because a highblood troll who hears of the old ways of Alternia attempts to kill her and take her crown, as she's technically the heiress. Jane wins, but she starts to see trolls and Alternian culture in a different light from then on. At first she was only trying to prevent the worst parts of Alternian culture from coming back, but over time grew to despise trolls, and ended up trying to force human culture onto Alternians.

The other Candy villains are a dangerous terrorist rebel group that wants to overthrow the creators and destroy them. They say the creators made the people, abandoned the people for years, then suddenly came back and decided they control the people. The group is made of humans, trolls, carapacians, and even consorts. The mysterious shadowed leader claims to be doing this for the people, but really, all they want is to have control for themselves, and they don't care if any innocents get in the way.

Harry Anderson

Has nothing to fix, he’s perfect as is

Okay but seriously, the guy is the kid with the least questionable things around him. He has no baggage from sharing the same name as an established character (ICP Harry Anderson doesn’t count), and he didn’t come from infidelity.

He also has actual color to his personality. He likes musicals and sewing. He has a good relationship with his dad. Like many kids with divorced parents, he wishes his parents were together again. What do the others have? Vrissy is just a slightly less aggressive Vriska. Tavros is just OG Tavros and Jake combined. Yiffy’s thing is being a dog girl named Yiffany Longstocking. The others could be fleshed out eventually, but with the slow pace and meandering plot we have right now, I doubt it.

If Jane's the villain, things would mostly go the same way. If Jane isn't the villain, it goes two ways: he decides to join Vrissy's guerilla anti-anti-creator group and fight because he wants to protect his parents, or he's just very anti-conflict and avoids the fight because he doesn't think he's up to it. He's frequently threatened but doesn't tell his parents about the threats. Eventually, he gets convinced to join and fight.

Vrissy

So Vrissy’s in relationships with guys who are technically her cousins. At first I was like “well, they’re not biologically related nor were they raised as family so it’s not weird”. But then Tavros called Kanaya “Aunt Kanaya” and now I’m thinking “oh god, that’s really weird”.

Now she’s just a troll girl from school. She's just close to Kanaya and Rose, but isn’t their kid. She isn’t related to anyone. Anyone except Vriska, who she was named after. Vrissy’s new nickname is just Vriss.

Alternatively, her name is something completely different. Honestly, it just seemed like a way to shoehorn in a Vriska for the story. Only for actual Vriska to come back anyway.

Uhh, Eshtha (from Jyeshtha, a Hindu nakshatra Scorpius is associated with)? Oriona (from Orion, the myth where Scorpius is mostly attributed to)? Naiaka (from Manaiakalani, as Hawaiians saw Scorpius as the demigod Maui’s fishhook)? Oh wait, I’ll have to make nicknames for those names too. Uh, Eshty, Riona, and Naiah.

Maybe have her have a personality that’s rather opposite to Vriska’s than have her as Vriska 2. She's more a perky goth, more cheerful and sweet. More "I knew you could do it!" than "So you can do something after all." A beast in battle, of course. She doesn't like to use her mind control powers, because she finds them disturbing.

If Vriska had to come back, the conflict would come from their conflicting personalities. Vriska would pretty much act the same way she did to (Vriska), but this time, Vriss doesn't take any of it and stands her ground.

Whether the villain is Jane or not, she's the one who decides to fight back, and she gets her friends and others to join her. The creators have been nothing but good to her, and she cares about them a lot, especially Rose and Kanaya. Not to mention they're also her friends' parents.

Tavros

Yeah, we’re gonna have to rename that kid. It never made sense to me why Jake and Jane named their kid after some guy they don’t know that well. I don’t remember everything from the Epilogues, but I’ll assume the reason was Gamzee or something. Also weird that Jane, who’s supposed to be racist to trolls, would just...let her kid be named after one.

Something old-ish would work. Flynn? Silas? Avery? Clyde? Niles? Louie?

He's moirails with this Vriss instead of kismeses. The Vrissy/Tavros kismesis also felt like re-hashing the kismesis that Vriska and OG Tavros kinda had.

If we went post-canon villain Jane, he'd be reluctant to join the rebellion and is more of a pacifist who would rather try to talk his mom out of it.

Alternatively, Jane and Jake are separated (but not divorced) and he lives with Jake. Because Jane was never terrible to him and Jake doesn't tell him how bad she's gotten, he disagrees with her but still tries to justify and rationalize that Jane's really doing it from a place of good intentions.

If the villain isn't Jane, then Jane and Jake have been hiding him away, and his friends can only see him when they visit him at his swanky home. You might say he's...housetrapped. He joins because his friends are in it, and doesn't quite grasp how serious things are until the rebels try to kill Jane (the rebels try to kill Jane first because you always kill the healer first).

He's in contact with a mysterious guide who's kinda spacy and a little terrifying at times. His friends think the guide might just be some creepy predator. It's revealed to be Candy Gamzee, out of the fridge and legitimately harmless, but untraceable and doing mysterious things behind the black. Again.

Come to think of it, Dirk's missing too...

Yiffany Longstocking

Yiffy is now the ectokid of Dave and Jade. She looks more like a DaveJade kid than JadeRose, really. Dave and Jade are also either happily married or coming close to an amicable divorce. Yeah, the toxic shit Jade did and the erasure of Dave's bisexuality also don't exist here. Jade, Dave, Karkat, and Terezi are backing Vrissy's anti-anti-creator group.

Her new name is something unisex. Riley? Logan? Robin? Sloan? Salem?

She spends a lot of time outside doing sports and doesn't talk much. She's not very close to the other three kids, but she's surprisingly pretty close to her Aunt Rose.

While Jade and Dave are out on a mission for Karkat (this is the mission Candy Dave dies), she gets kidnapped by the opposing force (Jane/the terrorists). She gets a shock collar forced on her, then is hidden away in a Boarding School for Inconvenient Girls, enrolled under the name "Yiffany Longstocking". Jade comes home to find that her family's been taken from her. Again.

Yiffy almost escapes, but she gets knocked out and taken back to base, where they lock her in a cage and treat her like a dog. She's still defiant to the end.

If Jane's the villain, Jake is inspired by Yiffy's defiance, grows some balls, exposes Yiffy's treatment to the press, and sets her free. She beats up the guards trying to stop her. Jake gets surrounded by more guards. In response, he pulls out his pistols and a one-liner, and bam, cliffhanger.

If it's the terrorist group, Terezi picks up on Yiffy's scent when they're in a base, and she's saved by the other three kids, where she immediately turns around and beats the crap out of the guards. They become proper friends from there.

The reunion panel still happens and this time it's her reuniting with her loving mother and aunt instead of...y'know.

BONUS: Sadstuck

Harry gets his own “im not a hero” speech after trying and “failing” to be the hero that John was

Vriss is eventually forced to use her mind control powers. It’s either a “Katara using bloodbending" situation, or she forces her friends to leave her behind when they want to stick by her.

Tavros finally witnesses his mother’s true nature when Jake defeats all the guards, but is stabbed from behind by Jane and killed. In the other version, it seems Jane is finally safe and able to come home to her son. Then she’s killed right in front of him.

After the big hug with Jade and Rose, Yiffy pulls away. She smiles, looks around behind them, and asks “Where’s Dad?”

So, please tell me what you think!

#Homestuck 2 #HS2 #hs^2 #vrissy maryam lalonde #harry anderson egbert #tavros english #yiffany longstocking lalonde harley #yiffany lalonde harley #my writing

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riverboundao3ff · 5 years ago

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Riverbound, Chapter 20

Your name is MICAH, and ten nights have come and gone in what felt like a few hours.

It’s still early enough that even Lynera is still asleep in the next room over, which is really saying something because that girl is up at the asscrack of dusk no matter what night it is. You’re curled up on the sofa in the study, staring at a fungus-shaped nightlight that does a poor job of actually illuminating the surrounding area, and wondering what the hell you were going to tell your friends in the future.

Hey, guys! Sorry I kind of dropped off the grid for a while there. I fought this fucked-up version of one of my human friends, vanished into the literal void to take a nap because I was super tired from splitting a whole universe apart, and then traveled back to the past to help fight in a literal revolution… because I want to save my other friends, I guess? You don’t have to worry about that changing the future or whatever, I promise! I’m literally a god now, so I have total control over time and space.

Geez. You hope Vriska is ready to stop the others from kicking your ass.

Should you just go? You could easily spend the night on future Alternia and be back by breakfast. Teleporting still makes you a little nervous; the fear of messing up still lingers in the back of your head, but nothing bad has happened yet, so…

Yeah, you’re definitely not getting any more sleep. Might as well be productive.

You roll off the couch with a grunt, stagger a bit as all the blood rushes down to your legs, and then stumble over to the bathroom to brush your teeth and wash your face. Maybe you were about to pull up to the future to get yelled at by a bunch of teenagers, maybe not, but that doesn’t mean you have to look like crap.

The person looking back at you in the mirror startles you more than you’d like to admit. Their eyes are tired but wild, like a feral animal that’s been hunted to the point of exhaustion. Too-pale skin reflects the ceiling lights with an intensity that hurts your head if you look for too long. The dark shadows underneath both eyes are so dark they look like smudged mascara. You’ve always been very fair, even for a white kid, but you know that looking like this can’t be healthy.

Then there’s the fact that you’re still pretty underweight. You’ve been doing your best to eat on a somewhat regular basis, but you just don’t feel hungry anymore. It’s like your body already decided to give up.

And to be honest, the rest of you isn’t too far behind.

“Look at you. Sans Undertale looking-ass,” you tell the shadow in the mirror.

The shadow blinks in agreement at the same time you do.

You can’t look at yourself anymore. Moving as quickly as you can, you brush your teeth and do your best to assemble yourself into what could maybe pass for a functional human being and leave to go get dressed.

You’re rifling through your backpack for your water bottle when the lights come on in Lynera’s room. The bedroom door cracks open, and a messy head of pair pokes out, bits of sopor slime still clinging to black curls.

“Micah? What are you doing up so early?” she yawns.

“I, ah, I gotta go visit some friends a ways out of town. I’ll be back in a bit,” you promise. “Sorry if I woke you up.”

“You didn’t! A new cluster of eggs is due to hatch tonight and I want to be there!” she practically sings as she gets ready.

You feel the sadness leave your body as Lynera practically prances around as she gets ready for her shift. It’s not often she lets down her walls, but when she does, you can’t help but take a step back to enjoy the show.

“Give those babies some love for me,” you tell her as you hoist your backpack over your shoulders.

“I will!”

Alright. Here we go. You close your eyes and visualize Vriska’s living room. That’s a good place to start, right? You’ll have a quick talk with Vriska, you’ll go visit your other friends one at a time to explain what’s going on, and then you can talk to those who are interested about helping the rebellion from the future.

Time and space part easily as you zap out of Lynera’s study and--

“-- worry about OH MY FUCKING GOD.”

You yelp in surprise as somebody shrieks at a deafening volume right next to your ear. Instincts take over, and you spring backward into something big and hard. That ‘something’ turns out to be a bookshelf, as you soon find out as a couple of novels fall from the top shelves and hit you right on the head.

“Ow! Shit!”

And that’s when you realize you have twelve young teenagers sitting around Vriska’s living room, all staring at you in various degrees of shock. Nepeta, Equius, Kanaya, and Sollux are all on the sofa, with Sollux perched on the backrest like he’s ready to take flight. Terezi and Vriska are standing on the coffee table together for some reason. Eridan’s curled up on the loveseat with one hand on his rifle. All of the others are sprawled out on the carpet.

All of the others except for Karkat, that is, who seems to have been returning from the kitchen with a pile of chips on his plate.

“Oh, hi!” Aradia says cheerfully. “Wow, I can see your bones--”

“THEY’RE BAAAAAAAACK!” Vriska hollers, launching herself off the coffee table and slamming into you at full speed.

The air is smooshed out of your lungs before you can brace yourself for impact. Thankfully, Vriska catches you before you can eat shit, otherwise you would have probably just teleported back to past Alternia and tried this whole thing again some other time.

“Hey, Vris,” you wheeze, patting her back. “Happy to see you too.”

“Fucking HELL, don’t do that,” Karkat yells, stomping over to the sofa and plopping down next to Kanaya. Kanaya purses her lips in mild amusement and delicately plucks a chip from his plate to eat.

Vriska just scoffs. “Don’t be a baby, Vantas, you know full well Micah can teleport--”

“Eat my full ass, Serket.”

“Hi, Micah!” Nepeta trills. A general murmur of greetings follows that, some more enthusiastic than others. Sollux, Equius, and Tavros all seem to be very on-edge tonight.

Feferi actually hops up to give you a hug as well, thankfully with a lot more care than Vriska had. It’s becoming weirdly normal to know that this big-ass six-sweep old girl could crush your skull like an eggshell.

“Don’t worry, nobody’s mad at you, I promise,” she whispers in your ear.

“Huh?”

Vriska grins and clasps your shoulder. “Oh, I already told them everything.”

“... Oh, boy.”

You turn back to the others and try your best winning smile.

“Yeah, what the fuck, dude?” Sollux demands.

“How are we even gonna exist with this kind of thing?” Karkat splutters, throwing his hands up in the air.

Tavros winces. “We get that you can do crazy space-time stuff, but--”

“You’re in way over your pan, retard!”

Ah, fuck. “Listen, guys, I know what I’m doing sounds pretty insane. And I’m sorry that I can’t tell you how exactly I’m going to pull all of this off because… you know, time shenanigans. But I need you guys to trust in me, at least for now. Also, Karkat, let’s not use that word. It’s extremely disrespectful.”

“Who are you, my lusus?” he challenges.

“No. Should I zap over and get him myself?”

“NO!”

“That’s what I thought.”

Vriska snickers under her breath. Karkat gives her a look that just screams murder.

Everybody else still looks a little queasy. Guilt rears its ugly head for the millionth time in the hour you’ve been awake, fearful and taunting and ashamed all at the same time. If you could just tell them everything, right now, you wouldn’t have to feel like this anymore.

Tell them.

You don’t, because you’re a coward, but you do try and calm everybody’s nerves again. “To elaborate on what Tavros just tried to say, yes, I can do crazy space-time stuff. Which means I can do stuff in one point in time and it won’t completely fuck up all the other points in time. It’ll change things, sure, but it won’t erase people.”

“What about our memories?” Eridan asks tersely.

“Definitely not,” you tell him. I won’t let that happen. “If everything goes according to plan, things will just start… changing.”

“We’re gonna make a new world that’s better for everybody!” Vriska announces proudly. “That’s why you guys are all here today.”

“By our human friend fighting in a rebellion that was already lost? Setting aside the fact that’s… treason… that also sounds rather dangerous. Micah, you aren’t a great fighter,” Equius says. His voice is quiet, but he’s so stiff you could probably use him to prop open a barn door.

“A rebellion is a lot more than just fighting, dude. So far I’ve just helped teleport people around,” you remind him.

“... Still.”

Nepeta suddenly surges to her feet, eyes blazing. “I don’t care that it’s treason! Don’t you care about what they did to me? My whole neighborhood got burned down in a drone strike!”

“Nepeta--”

“No! I remember everything now. I’m gonna help them win, ‘cause, ‘cause… even though we all had to suffer, the ones who come after us might not have to.”

Nobody speaks for many heartbeats after that. Something about what she said rings inside your head, sticking to your neurons like glue.

“See? Nepeta knows what’s good!” Terezi yells.

“This is insane.”

“Yeah, it’s awesome!”

“I’m in,” Aradia agrees, winking at you as she smooths her skirt down. Your anxiety backs down a little at her blatant support. Aradia Knows Things, right? Surely if she thinks you should keep doing what you’re doing…

“So am I,” Tavros announces, setting his jaw defiantly. Nepeta seems to have set off a chain reaction, because everybody else sits up a little straighter, eyeing each other as if daring anybody else to go first.

“And I,” Kanaya adds.

Karkat groans. “Fuck you guys. Fine! It’s not like we can play SGRUB anymore.”

“You guys are gonna die,” Sollux says, scrubbing his face with the palms of his hands. “We. Are. All. Gonna. Die.”

“So are you in?” you ask, reaching over to poke his arm.

He smacks your hand away. “Get fucked. Sure. Whatever.”

“Yay!”

Eridan huffs quietly and crosses his arms. “Well, you guys are gonna need somebody with power to help. And money. I’m in.”

Equius turns to stare at him with his jaw nearly on the floor, and you’re so full of pride you think you’re going to explode. You should have known your friends would eventually come around. And with not one, but two whole seadwellers on their side, they were truly going to be a force to be reckoned with.

“I knew it! I knew you cared!” Feferi squeals, jabbing a finger at her ex-moirail. Eridan curls up tighter on himself, but that doesn’t stop a small smile from lighting up his face.

“Is that a yes from you, Feferi?”

“It’s a hell yes, Micah!”

Gamzee smiles lazily from underneath the coffee table. “I told you motherfuckers. I told you a miracle was coming, and here it is.”

Poor Equius looks like he’s on the verge of a panic attack. “I-I… you can’t possibly, I mean--”

“If you’ll excuse us!” Nepeta chirps, effortlessly pulling her moirail from the couch and slinging him over her muscular shoulders. The indigoblood yelps indignantly, but Nepeta just prances on upstairs as if she’s carrying a sack of potatoes and not a teenage boy nearly twice her size.

“What’s up with olivebloods and being insanely buff? I mean, my girlfriend’s taken on a jadeblood and a teal at the same time and she won,” you wonder.

Karkat immediately focuses on you with the intensity of a laser. “A girlfriend? You’re in a relationship?”

“Micah’s got a girlfriend!” Feferi yells, picking you up and twirling you around.

“What quadrant?”

“Is she cute?”

“An oliveblood, right-?”

“We wanna meet her!”

“Guys! Can we please focus on taking down the Empire? We can gossip about Micah’s love life later!” Vriska yells, clapping her hands for order.

You rest an elbow on Feferi’s shoulder, enjoying being tall for the moment as she’s carrying you. “Ooh! You got a mission plan, Vriska?”

“You bet your skinny alien ass I do!” She pauses for emphasis and puffs out her chest. “We’re gonna go beat up a bitch for using lowbloods as FLARP bait!”

“Didn’t you do the exact same thing not too long ago?” Karkat scoffs.

Vriska scowls down at him. “Yes! Yes, I did! But now I’m gonna turn things around and help them instead, okay? ‘Cause I’m changing my…. my toxic behavior.”

She looks to you for support, and you give her the thumbs-up.

The others actually look a little impressed, which gives her the courage to keep going. “In half an hour Terezi and I are going to meet this violetblood dude who’s been responsible for a lot of rust and bronze deaths in the area. It’s a FLARP session at sea, so he’ll have his team-- I mean hostages-- on board with him.”

“You need a team?” you ask.

“You offering?”

“Of course.”

“Yes! But no passing out on me! Our goal is to neutralize the threat, secure the hostages, and deliver them back to shore so they can go home. Any questions?”

“I’m coming too,” Eridan says. He hops to his feet, dusting off some invisible debris on his pants. “That’s not a question, though.”

“Can I come? It sounds exciting,” Aradia begs.

“Sure! Anybody else?” Vriska scans the crowd with a smirk, as if saying You are all too pussy for this kind of adventure.

Unfortunately, it works. Karkat and Feferi step forward as well, which brings the team total up to six. Everybody else gets ready to go home before the sun comes up. Out on the horizon, heat lightning crackles in the sky like a strobe ball. You end up leaving your jacket with your backpack on the couch, because even for somebody who has trouble retaining heat, Alternian summers are brutal.

Surprisingly, the team figures out their FLARP-ing shit quickly enough, as they all played at one point or the other. You still have no idea what to make out of all the numbers and stats and scores that come with each move, even though Vriska makes it all look like child’s play. Karkat keeps grumbling about “games for girls” which has your hackles up until you remember that female trolls tend to be more violent than the males. That makes sense to you, especially when you remember Remele beating the shit out of that purpleblood and all of Lynera’s knives.

In almost no time at all the six of you are sailing out to sea, the wind in your hair and the smell of salt water filling your nose. If you close your eyes and pretended, you could almost imagine you’re back on Earth, taking a boat ride with your mom’s boyfriend and your stepsister at the lakehouse--

A particularly large wave knocks you back on your ass, and the memory cuts off as quickly as it began.

“Fuck!” you hiss, trying to get your bearings. You try as hard as you can to visualize what you just remembered, but all you can recall is sunlight sparkling off water, the rumble of an engine, a man laughing and nearly choking on his beer as your tiny preteen self got knocked around by the rocking of the motorboat.

A strong hand picks you up by the arm and sets you on your feet. “You okay?”

“Yeah. Thanks, Fef.” You pat her elbow. “Sometimes it’s rough being a little guy.”

Her eyes are round with sympathy. “Looks like it. That reminds me, I wanna ask your opinion on something really important.”

“Oh, okay!” Wow, the Heiress of Alternia is asking my opinion on something? Talk about friends in high places.

… Wait, what was I trying to remember?

“What do you think of the hemospectrum?”

You purse your lips. “Well, if that ain’t a loaded question I dunno what is.”

“I mean, you don’t have to answer, but…”

“You know what I think? I think that the hemospectrum could have been a really good thing. Those who live for quite some time, paving the way for those who won’t be here as long? Sounds great. But then it became about power and control. And-And I think that if-- that once we win, we can’t go back to that system. There’s just too much trauma that’s been birthed from it that’s affected literally every troll to have ever existed,” you explain.

Feferi considers that, and then she nods in agreement. “That makes sense.”

“Oh, shit, is it big brain hour?” Terezi calls from the wheel.

“It is!” Then you do a double-take. “Why is the blind girl driving?”

“Vriska’s getting dressed.”

“Do you even know where we’re going?”

“Forward.”

“Bruh.”

Karkat throws up for the fifth time over the side of the ship. You groan and stumble over to him to pat his back.

“You’ll get your sea legs soon,” you promise.

“I hate the ocean. Why does there need to be oceans. I never would have thought I would ever say this but by infant Troll Jegus do I miss Texas. It’s hot, it’s human-racist, but there is hardly any damn water and for that it’s easily one of the best places I’ve ever been,” he rasps.

You smile. “Wanna see Dave after this is over?”

“Yes, please. Strider’s bullshit is the only thing that can numb me to the pain of occupying the realm of mortals.”

Out of the corner of your eye, you see Eridan smirk. You turn to look at him in confusion, and he makes the quadrant symbol for flushcrush: two thumbs pressed together over the center of his chest, where a troll’s heart would be.

Really? you mouth at him, delighted by this unexpected turn of events. He nods eagerly, clearly just as enthusiastic about Karkat getting a boyfriend as you are, but before you can sneak off with him to get the tea his gaze fixates on something past you.

You turn to see the small speck of what is undoubtedly another ship coming your way. A ship that is much bigger and fancier than the 8rigantine, at full sail and most likely armed to the teeth.

“He’s coming on our eleven!” Feferi calls up to Terezi.

“Go get Vriska,” the tealblood orders. Her perfectly white fangs flash in the light of the moons as she grins like a shark. “Time to kick this bitchboy’s ass!”

#riverbound #hiveswap friendsim trolls #hiveswap #mspa reader #c20 #the guardian #beta trolls #pesterquest #homestuck

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ukeealyptus · 5 years ago

Text

Crocker Corp Recap: Days 17-19

Day 17: no news

Day 18:

we're in contact with Karkat! we didn't manage to get too much out of him amidst all the yelling hate-flirting, but there was still some.

- Karkat is lying to us about his job

We know from others that Karkat works in filing. He told us that he manages meetings, works in troll HR, and more. He's probably lying about this to conceal his caste.

- He doesn't care about us calling him Karkat, and knows a lot of troll's names---

Up until this point it's been made clear that the Respectful thing to do is refer to someone by their ID, especially if they're a higher caste ((see: "VS, and only VS")). He refers to Nepeta and Tavros by their names, and it is a bit curious how he knows them.

- Karkat doesn't get along with Sollux-------

He is adamant that they are not friends, and apparently Sollux even has Karkat blocked. I note this just because it might be a sensitive subject in future conversations with Sollux.

- Sollux has been missing a lot-----------

It can most likely be assumed that this is because he's spending more and more time talking with DIrk, though the fact that people are starting to take notice isn't good, especially paired with people's suspicions about his sudden niceness.

Day 19:

- more conversations with Karkat! - he sucks with tech.----

Just, like, flat-out sucks. Sollux has him blocked and won't help him, so Ardent was heroically trying to help him out. He understands nothing. Karkat thinks that Ardent is our IT guy.

- He's suspicious of Daven't-----------

Daven't had been talking to him as a worker at CC with magic powers. Karkat doesn't believe this and fact-checked it with me, since we were asking each other about our friends. -

He knows Terezi------------

They're friends, but she's usually too busy with her job to hang out. "She takes it too seriously"

- He doesn't like Vriska-------------

Bluh bluh huge bitch. thats it.

- he is confused about why everyone is talking to him about communism and unionising--

He doesn't understand it and when I explained he didn't think it was a good idea and just dismissed it.

- kanaya is a rainbowdrinker----------

Karkat says he sometimes sees her lick the blood off of the floor. He hopes that she is not a rainbowdrinker, as they are very dangerous.

- he is hiding his blood color----------

Ardent managed to get it out of him as he was helping him fix his computer, but he is still sensitive about the subject with others.

- CC is doing something to Gamzee that seems to mirror what they're doing to Dirk--

Karkat says that when Gamzee first came to CC he was extremely violent and aggressive, but now he's happy all the time. He just sits around smiling and giggling, kinda like "Somehow someone was keeping him happy to keep him under control."

Now this is interesting because it almost exactly mirrors Dirk's situation- he was originally aggressive, but after getting tiara'd, is just giggly and happy. The tiara is probably keeping Gamzee under control.

- Karkat knows John, but there are no updates-------

Karkat says that John switched sectors about a month ago. That is strange, since it was only about two weeks. This raises more questions about the timeline and passage of time.

- Karkat is not in any quadrants--------

He says that this is his own choice.

- David is not doing well-----------

He is still refusing to talk to anybody and is going through withdrawal. He doesn't want to see himself like that and he doesn't want other people to see him like that either.

#crocker corp arg #crocker corp

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bladekindeyewear · 6 years ago

Text

Boots Reads Homestuck Epilogue(s) Part 15 - Candy Page 34

==>

John finally decides to let the relevance of his story end, and enjoy that he’s made at least some of his other friends happy with his choice. Time to read Page 34...

VRISKA: Pfft, yeah, wh8tever. I’m basically Immortal, bitch.

Preeeetty sure you’re confusing yourself with one of your parents.

Pff, actual healthy kismesis with a Tavros? Wow, we’re getting all sorts of redemption by not-really-Vriska proxy here.

HARRY ANDERSON: he’s always getting all weepy whenever i talk to him anyway. HARRY ANDERSON: i don’t think i could have taken another round of him choking back tears while apologizing to me about “what happened with me and your mother, harry.” HARRY ANDERSON: i mean, god. he’s not even fucking DRUNK when he does this. HARRY ANDERSON: that might actually be the most embarrassing part.

.......

Okay, having grown up with a father who suffered from serious depression and would break into tears embarrassingly easily, uh. I can relate? But also fuck you, that’s inconsiderate.

--Dammit, new Vriska is catching wind of old Vriska.

Vriska and (Vriska) both start shrieking at a pitch John’s only ever heard one time before. It was a sound that once accompanied the end of everything. A sound once heard the night he dreamt in anime.

Oh that’s brilliant. If the entire Candy arc ended here it’d be great, though I know it’s not quite over yet.

==>

...Oh shit, we actually get to see what happens immediately next.

Interesting introspective thoughts! Or, trying her best NOT to be introspective and failing.

Oh my god, SHUT UP Gamzee. Vriska, just kill him already??

PFFF HE SENT A PIC OF IT TO KARKAT :D

Pfff. Yeah, Vriska, TRY and ignore what just happened and how it was almost entirely your idea.

(Vriska) is so furious, she has no way of pinpointing the exact moment her intent stopped being intimidating him into silence and started being guaranteeing his silence, forever.

Thank FUCKING goodness, PLEASE kill him.

YAY he’s dead! :D (Even though he’ll probably revive anyway because bullshit.)

Heheh. NOW we get a cross-Vriska heart to heart.

==>

Alright, a bit more John moping. Man... this Candy section is a whole lot easier to swallow AFTER Meat than I imagine it would have been before.

.....heck. EITHER of these epilogue branches are really fucking hard to swallow the first time around without the other’s context.

Oh huh, it’s his house from the Medium then? Relocated and stuff?

Jake, hm. Is Jake going to try and leave his son with John like that failed kidnapping in reverse or?

Jake snaps the elastic on his pair of red underpants. It’s the only thing he’s wearing.

Oooookay then.

JAKE: She had a certain way she liked me kipped out and well, i didnt want to bring anything that belonged to her when i left. Nothing she er, might miss. TAVROS: You took me,

Jake winces.

TAVROS: And,,, you took you,

Jake’s wince deepens.

Oh, so that’s what this is! Jake fleeing with his son from an abusive relationship. About gosh darn time. .....geez, how bad did it get for JAKE to finally muster the gumption to do that himself after all these years???

Jake is one whole wince now

I know THAT feeling. Or at least feel like I do.

John you dedicate your life to keeping this child happy

JOHN: it’s just been kind of a rough forever.

JAKE: Maybe you should blame me? JAKE: Maybe i need someone to blame me. For once. JOHN: ...huh? JAKE: I think im starting to realize that ive been going through life with the mindset that nothing has ever really been within my control.

YES.

This is how Vriska broke Tavros way back in the comic, by constantly denying him agency. Jake’s been battered down the same way too, and it’s not too late to pick up the reins. He’s already DONE that by finally leaving his genocidal wife.

There’s a bit of Page of Hope-yness to this whole disastrous Candy timeline, come to think of it? People fulfilling others’ desires out of obligation constantly, doing what they think others want? Roxy, Jake, Dave and Karkat... all fucked over at the aggressive whims of more active folk, rolling over when they really shouldn’t have? Or in Roxy’s case, her CHARACTER basically SHOULD NOT HAVE IN THE SLIGHTEST?

JAKE: Havent you ever wanted to let someone make the tough choices for you?

Huh.

Or maybe he is doing exactly what Jake has always done. In a certain light, isn’t ascribing all this mess to some unconscious influence he might have had over the metaphysical shape of reality just a way to brush off his simpler failures as a man and a father?

Yes. You can act and change this too, John. You almost did with the kidnapping before! Go and take down the new Batterwitch.

Hm, Hopey thing?

JAKE: John. JOHN: yeah? JAKE: Take my hand. JOHN: what? why?

Oh shit. Are they going to be able to FIX some of this BS with some sort of hopey thing??? :D Probably too much to hope for but still!

Being flung from Jake’s orbit of Hope and Change

Pffff. Had to throw in an Obama didn’t you.

...Oh. Oh wow. Oh we get to figure out what the fuck was up with Roxy all this time. Oh boy.

JAKE: So what if it doesnt change anything? Wont it matter to your family to see you care? JAKE: Wont it make you feel better to try?

Heheh, Hope aspecty stuff. The ability to believe that something matters even when you “know” it doesn’t.

==>

...Yeah, it’s pretty easy to relax on a dead Gamzee.

Oh cool. These Vriskas are alike enough to bond! New Vriska is still in her teenage unbalanced go-for-it stage, and old Vriska has been knocked down a peg by the clown incident, putting them on a close enough level to not want to instantly disown each other, unlike old Vriska and ghost Vriska.

VRISKA: The Mayor’s dead, dude.

HOW did the Mayor die?!?? Did I just FORGET that from the end of Homestuck or something??

(I mean, probably.)

Callback to the clouds in that first Jade dream John had.

(VRISKA): Or may8e the truth just makes me kind of nervous. VRISKA: What “Truth”? (VRISKA): Don’t tell him I said this, 8ut, I think John is just an extremely powerful 8eing. Even when he sucks. (VRISKA): And he certainly does appear to suck in this reality. (VRISKA): And yet, the uneasy feeling is there. (VRISKA): It’s a vague feeling I’ve had in the 8ack of my mind for a long time, 8ut it really hit me when I was talking to him earlier. (VRISKA): It’s distur8ing to think a8out that much power 8ottled up in one stupid nerd who’ll never understand it. VRISKA: What Power are you even talking a8out? VRISKA: Like, lame Wind Powers? (VRISKA): No, I mean... (VRISKA): The power to shape reality. Even without intending to.

FUCK did he really cause all this??? Even the Roxy shit?!??? D: D: D:

It’s being left vague but it IS sounding like John was actually RIGHT about all that stuff. FUCK, if the “villain” who messed up Roxy is actually just John’s subconscious... :C

Even if the epilogue ends right here, though, with John about to call Roxy, I can imagine it working out, though. It’s on a right enough track there.

(VRISKA): I’ve spent so long caring so much a8out what other people thought of me. Mainly that they saw me as important, or making a “difference.”

Mhmm mhmm. Light n stuff.

Yeah, realizing that importance isn’t ALL that’s “important” is really, um. Important. Ahem.

Hm, other Vriska, that smile had seven pairs of dots, not eight. :?

(VRISKA): The POINT is, I was so mad at her. (VRISKA): That happy ghost version of myself, who was free of everything. (VRISKA): I was pro8a8ly mad 8ecause she got to 8e who she really was, without stressing a8out it, which is something I never felt like I was allowed to have.

Indeed.

(VRISKA): I guess I mean there’s someone specifically I fell out of touch with, who it feels like I’ll never see again.

Too bad, only ghost Vriska got her reunite with ‘Rezi. :P

(VRISKA): On some level I knew she was right. She was happy and honest with herself. And that’s what made her... (VRISKA): A version of myself who was actually worthy of someone I cared a8out.

Yyyep. As I said. :)

VRISKA: You’re just talking a8out The Girl You 8linded that one time, aren’t you? (VRISKA): Ummmmmmmm.

Heheh. Yeah, you’re not going to hide that sort of thing from your sharp near-clone.

Oh cool! She gets to see all those messages and feel turboguilt or something.

...oh shit. Is a message going to actually get to her? It-- oh shit. Didn’t Terezi have her phone buzzing in her pocket and ignored it in the end of Meat or something? Or at SOMEONE did and I thought it conspicuous but it didn’t get addressed in that side of the story and-- FFFFuck is she eventually going to see it or??! D:

She’s GOT to have seen it before running all the way off with villain Dirk, right?? D:

==>

Okay. You seem to be thinking clearly, Roxy. What’s going through your head? Give us some answers. Don’t fuck this up too much, John.

but she knows by now that it’s not her job to make him happy. That was something she gave up on years ago. But wanting to? That feeling is still as fresh as it always was.

FUCK was this all just a placid feeling of obligation to make John happy for all he did to ensure victory or something??? D: D: D:

She’s still working through what she feels about distancing herself from Jane

Yesssss

If he’s truly about to be real with her for the first time in forever,

Gosh fucking DARNIT John, you could have fixed all this DECADES AGO if you had a real talk with her ONCE!!!!!

ROXY: the more i thought abt it the more i figured holdin on to that one thing made me lose out on some other shit ROXY: u might relate JOHN: haha, you got me there i guess.

JOHN: i’ve been doing a lot of thinking about how things got to be like they are. JOHN: i guess i’ll just come out and say it. JOHN: i completed fucked up your entire life. JOHN: i’m not going to pretend like there are two sides here. it’s my bad, totally. JOHN: like, not just what happened to our marriage, though it’s also true that that’s completely my fault. JOHN: but even before that... JOHN: i think i fucked up on just this massive, fundamental level, and it’s what i did— JOHN: or, well, what i didn’t do— JOHN: that caused every stupid bullshit thing about the way this world is.

...Huh.

That may not actually be true, and Roxy might be about to prove how self-absorbedly reductive that is.

ROXY: oh nah ill stop u rite there my man

Okay YES. If this wasn’t him, then SET HIM THE FUCK STRAIGHT. :D

She knows more than he does, and she doesn’t need to hear it.

TELL US TELL US TELL US

YES TEAR INTO HIM he’s wanted that for so long stand up for yourself and tell us what the fuck happened and why

He’s been looking at her, really looking at her, and she doesn’t want to blink, just in case that shatters it.

Yes because he was looking for the real Roxy that would call out his BS

JOHN: i used to be so angry that you wouldn’t tell me what you really thought, before. JOHN: not like i wanted to FIGHT fight, but like. JOHN: i’m just not used to this flavor of roxy. ROXY: hm ROXY: sounds to me like u just disproved ur own hotshot theory then genius JOHN: huh? ROXY: you wished i was one way the whole time we were married ROXY: but i wasnt

YES!!! Yes his theory’s disproven! He never WANTED Roxy to just act that way, he wasn’t the cause of this, I was hoping for that! :D

ROXY: i was bad at standin up for myself then and im learnin to be good at it now

That’s....... sad, if that’s the explanation. But it’s better than mind control I guess. :(

JOHN: but... JOHN: you were never like that before i... ROXY: dude ROXY: where tf do u get off trying to decide what is or isnt me being “like me” enuff ROXY: do u think ppl stay the same their whole damn lives or what

Oh wow. Now Andrew’s slamming SLAMMING of fanfics. He’s saying “who are you to know for SURE that they wouldn’t act that way”?? That’s pretty good.

ROXY: i like the way things turned out just fuckin fine ROXY: so maybe u could stop wastin precious eternity thinkin ur so special that its ur fault everyones not perfectly happy

:’)

Mhmm, and they’re free from the heroic design arcs or what have you. Or... were, until Dirk tore them back in again. Tossed aside their fucking victory with his selfish... ugh.

Mhmm, Roxy’s the perfect person to explain that not being in a canon, Light-filled timeline isn’t really a bad thing.

ROXY: i just do things the best way i think to do em and then shrug n hope it works out?

Roxy thinks about time and the spirals of choice that hang just outside her periphery, and the vertigo grows.

Good advice, and hm. Maybe there’s some Void sight kind of playing into this as well, making it easy for her to get paralyzed by indecision and she’s had to learn to work through it.

...Ooh, that was a really cool non-binary gender diatribe in the narrative text. That’s some nice stuff. I felt like that was missing from the Meat side, glad we got it here at least. :D

JOHN: there’s literally nothing to do but keep moving forward. JOHN: i may as well not be a big fucking downer about it if i don’t have to be.

Thank goodness.

YES, JOHN SHOWING HIMSELF STRAIGHT-BACKED FOR HIS SON!!! :D

Man, I wish my dad had done that instead of all the other shit he did. At least he’s dead. :)

(Here’s a hint in case you’re wondering why I was relieved when my Dad offed himself.)

But that’s off topic. Let’s wrap up this epilogue already!!

==>

Page 39... only three or so pages left, right?

Pff, Karkat’s keeping them safe.

Heheh, more shitty Liberty statues.

Heheh, using them for weapons caches.

Gosh I hope they actually love each other and are mostly happy. Jade seems happy, at least. :(

Dammit, there go the doubts. He wouldn’t have had those doubts with Karkat. :C

He’s standing in the Oval Office of the White House.

Oh heck yes. Please tell me...

And over there... is something he doesn’t quite recognize. It doesn’t seem to fit in. He steps closer to investigate, wiping away at the layers of moss and dirt to reveal a surface he most certainly does recognize. It’s a transportalizer.

YES

Dave doesn’t waste any time. You don’t find something like this in the Oval Office and start agonizing over whether or not to use it. He steps on the platform, and in a blink his surroundings are completely different. The centuries of overgrowth are gone, and he appears to be in some sort of crypt, boxed in by walls of smooth, golden stone. At the far side of the room, something is hanging on the wall, encased in a sort of display. It’s a mounted god tier costume, about the size an adult male would wear. He recognizes the symbol. It’s the same one Jake used to wear when they were teens. It is the symbol for Hope.

HELL FUCKING YES

YES OBAMA

OBAMA: Hello, Mr. Strider. OBAMA: I’ve been waiting a long time for you to show up.

Dave’s jaw hangs open. The legends have been confirmed. As well as several key headcanons of his. Without thinking, he drops to one knee and bows his head.

DAVE: m... mr president DAVE: its an honor sir

Man, forget my past stomach clenching. Forget my hesitations, my turbulent emotions, all the ups and downs the various facets of these Epilogue chapters have given me. THIS is the best. THIS makes it all worth it. This is the best thing to have ever happened, and if I ever feel any regrets about ANYTHING that transpired in the Epilogues, I’ll feel infinitely better the moment I remember it gave us THIS.

The most beautiful scene I’ve ever witnessed. All my liberal, economy-ranting hopes and dreams confirmed. It’s glorious.

OBAMA: Come on now, Dave. We can’t be having that. OBAMA: I’m nobody’s king. I’m a democratically elected representative who took an oath to serve his country and his people. People like you, Dave. OBAMA: If anything, I should be the one bowing.

OBAMA. I MISSED YOU OBAMA. I CAN HEAR YOUR VOICE THROUGH YOUR TEXT AND ITS SO COMFORTING AND UPLIFTING

DAVE: mr president what i mean is im a huge fan of yours and i hope this doesnt sound fucked up but on some level i feel like ive been waiting my whole life for this moment?? OBAMA: I know, Dave.

Yes, yes you have. Yes, we can.

OBAMA: Most people thought I was gone. But I was keeping an eye on events. OBAMA: Wouldn’t miss it for anything.

I, too, would like to have the feeling that Obama is still out there, keeping an eye on things. Watching, smiling... providing some last background of Hope as things seem so temporarily sour. That feeling would be amazing.

...I mean he’s still alive IRL, sure, but not Obama watermark smiling lovingly from the sky or anything like it should be.

Yes, back to reading. Back to this glorious, definitely canon moment. The moment we learned that Obama was with us the whole time. :’)

DAVE: sorry if this is nosy but if you didnt die when you disappeared then how did you die OBAMA: Most of that is classified, Dave.

Pfffffff :D

OBAMA: When I was a boy living in Hawaii, on my thirteenth birthday I was visited by a mysterious stranger. OBAMA: He was an older man with a mustache. Kind of a corny, old-fashioned, adventuring type. He tried to convince me we were related. Of course, I thought he was full of shit. OBAMA: To this day, I’m not sure about that. Maybe he was. I didn’t think much of his tall tale at the time, but what did pique my interest was his story. OBAMA: He was voyaging all over the Pacific looking for a mysterious island, which supposedly had all the answers he’d spent his whole life searching for. OBAMA: During his travels, he set up outposts all over the ocean to help with his search. Such as one near where I lived as a boy. The outpost had a laboratory, an archeological dig site, a network of underground tunnels, the works. OBAMA: One time, I snuck in there and did some exploration of my own. Somewhere in the maze of underground ruins, I found a transporter pad, just like the one that brought you here. OBAMA: It sent me to a new realm. A place they called the Medium.

Grandpa Jake of Earth A, thank you SO much for bringing us this gift. The gift of Obama.

OBAMA: Hey, why don’t we take a walk. You’ll have a chance to collect yourself. And there’s something I’d like you to see.

:O :O :O

I am shivering with anticipation.

Ah, leave it to Obama to help Dave with the final steps of his character arc.

OBAMA: Are you sure that’s all he is, Dave?

FIX THINGS OBAMA!!!! :D :D :D

Wait, what if Obama can turn things into an actually legitimate DaveKatJade? That would be a miracle only a god of Hope could pull off.

OBAMA: I’ve had my share of doubts about all that, just like any other man. OBAMA: And I’ve had plenty of the same kind of struggles as you, Dave. DAVE: wait DAVE: you...

Obama nods, smiles wistfully. Dave arches his eyebrows high above his shades. They stare at each other, and in the look they exchange, they seem to say all that needs to be said between two grown men on the matter.

:’)

OBAMA: Believing is the key to understanding the truth underlying the words, the truth underlying the ideas they represent, and the truth underlying who we are as individuals. OBAMA: The power of belief, the power of Hope, that’s what endows that which is intangible, ephemeral, or uncertain with a sense of reality. OBAMA: It brings focus to the insubstantial, the mirages of the mind, the multiplicity of what is possible, of what could be, and isolates it—concentrates it—to turn it into that which is. OBAMA: And the result of that, Dave, is what we call truth.

I didn’t think we’d be learning more about the Hope aspect straight from the mouth of Barack Obama.

OBAMA: He taught me about many things. Combat, philosophy, life, love... DAVE: love??? DAVE: hold on are you saying DAVE: that...

PFFFFFFFF :D :D :D

OBAMA: She’s settled happily into the specific. That’s her path now. OBAMA: All of you have embraced that life, in this safely sequestered version of planet Earth. OBAMA: All of you until now, Dave. OBAMA: This is why you’re here. OBAMA: I believe you’re ready to wake up. DAVE: ...

...this is suddenly possibly going to be getting slightly sad isn’t it. D:

--Oh shit, so THIS is where Davebot came from.

How is he going to break things off with Jade though??? D: D: D:

...Oh my GOSH he’s just going to suddenly vanish and abandon her isn’t he. D:

...alright, merging with his other selves, et cetera...

It defers to its greatest knight, risen anew.

Yeah that’s nice but am I supposed to pretend you’re going to say goodbye to Jade offscreen or

--ah that’s why the bot didn’t have shades, gotta use the genuine Stiller ones

==>

Page 40, and the start of this sounds a lot like the Postscript. But we’re getting more this time, thank god.

ARADIA: when i watched as everything broke apart ARADIA: and got swallowed up by the black hole ARADIA: which is where i ended up too ARADIA: that black hole... ARADIA: thats basically you right JADE: yes. ARADIA: and when you speak of your brother ARADIA: thats lord english JADE: yes. ARADIA: and hes dead JADE: not just yet.

Oh shit. John’s final blow didn’t kill Lord English did it. Alt!Callie is going to strike the very last killing blow herself isn’t she.

JADE: lesser beings have so much trouble perceiving divinity in the uncanny.

Divinity? Like, Lollipop-style divinity? I mean, I guess this IS the Candy branch...? But what made this so “perfect” to begin with?

JADE: this world, unlike the canonical horrors from which it is hermetically insulated, will always fail to meet the combined criteria for truth, relevance, and essentiality that would endow this realm with any real gravity. JADE: its own naturally occurring supply of gravity, rather than the artificial supply i have given it. JADE: as such, what transpires here is characterized by experiential frivolity. JADE: physically, it is cordoned off by the black hole’s event horizon. it is safe. untouchable. JADE: inescapable. ARADIA: that sounds ominous

Oh. So this outside-of-canon timeline-verse whatever that Candy takes place in is like a trap? For Lord English to be trapped in forever, inside not just his OWN story like we thought before but into a place where he’ll be forever irrelevant, while, like... the “Prince” and others following him for pursuit or camaraderie reasons manage to escape somewhere even different? --No wait those people are OUTSIDE this place, in the “real” timeline/universe of Earth C. So Dirk’s destination is somewhere completely different; oh, and alt!Callie is the only one with the power to escape the black hole, to bring Davebot and Aradia with her back to quote-unquote “canon” or the closest thing to it to bring bastard Dirkbro down.

Or... something.

JADE: one could describe it as a phantasmal projection confined within my horizon. JADE: it was created by a choice that made it possible for that horizon to expand infinitely, to consume infinitely. JADE: and since that choice could not coexist with canon events, this place manifested to here to support its consequences. JADE: if this world were capable of anything either essential, relevant, or true in some stable combination, then it would perpetuate a corrosive paradox. JADE: as such, insulation from what is out there, and the inescapable well it rests in, is what protects all it holds inside. JADE: and since i am the embodiment of the black hole in which it rests, JADE: i am the one protecting this world.

Oh huh. So when we saw alt!Callie creating the black hole out of the Sun, she was actually using John’s “choice” and his timeline split to engineer the paradox that drove that singularity’s expansion? And so she’s going to be the lord and safeguard of all that is Non-Canon, and also seek to guide the heroes trying to save what IS Canon?

Hm!

JADE: physical destruction is one thing. JADE: obliteration of the entire canvas for all of reality over a given cosmic span is another. JADE: and yet there are even more insidious forms of destruction and subversion of life to consider. JADE: methods that are difficult to grasp for those on your plane.

Yep, destroying Heart. Destroying Soul. Destroying the uniqueness that drives individual agency and choices, and suborning people completely to your will and ideals without their consent or choice.

Hmm....

JADE: but longer stories have the power to draw consciousness into them. they possess arresting and hypnotic qualities which can be used by their tellers to alter the awareness of the listener.

Yep, like a biased narrator with their claws on the > prompt for characters.

JADE: i brought to your attention that the story you were listening to had a speaker with a specific identity. JADE: and where there is an identity, there can also be an agenda.

Yep yep. And by commandeering the story to his own agenda, Dirk’s been robbing everyone of a fundamental right to their own existences.

JADE: this is the sort of corruption i now must dedicate my existence in this new body to ending once and for all.

Heck Yes; returning the narrative to as objective a speakerless-ness as can be attained or simulated, and divesting the bias from agenda’d narrators that can wrest all control from the participants in a story, enslaving them and making them the author’s puppets instead of true to themselves as characters, people, etc.

--Oh my GOSH, was Dead!Jade eating the remains of Lord English at the end of that Postscript??? She was, wasn’t she? :D :D :D

That’s pretty fucking awesome. And a pretty fucking fair fate for him to get cannibalized by his sister.

JADE: consume his body. JADE: absorb his essence. JADE: and then using this host, i will generate enough power to move beyond the staggering pull of the event horizon encasing this world. JADE: a prison of my own making, which can be escaped only through the supreme unification with my other half. JADE: it is crucial to the cosmos that i succeed. JADE: the prince of heart has to be stopped.

:D :D :D :D :D

Pretty awesome! A decent setup to a story that probably shouldn’t be told, the implied sequel that Meat invites up or whatever. And... oh phew.

Oh PHEW.

OH FUCKING PHEW. HOLD ON.

So. The very last line of the epilogue, the last bit:

The hole leaves behind an absence in the sky so calm that continuing to call it a sky wouldn’t seem to do it justice. It’s a perfectly neutral expanse into which anything one can imagine might be summoned. And for a while, anything was. But not anymore. Where the hole gaped just moments ago, there now exists an imaginary line.

Above this line resides all that matters. Below exists all else. Never again the twain shall meet.

Okay! :D :D :D

So, when I read that last line, I was INCREDIBLY disheartened. I thought that Andrew was declaring that canon would never interfere with anything again, that this was the FINAL WORD on Homestuck and everything to do with it as far as canon was concerned, and that Dirk’s crimes and such would forever go unresolved and left to the imagination.

But that’s not what the line meant.

What’s INSIDE the singularity, and thus “under” the imaginary line, is everything non-canon, all the possibility and fanfiction and dead ghosts and such who are trapped in this safeguarded realm alt!Callie created to protect them, away from the influence of any future plot danger beyond the mundane issues they create for themselves.

And what’s OUTSIDE the singularity, above the line, is canon. A canon which actually continues, and which this line doesn’t necessarily cut short.

I don’t know if Andrew will ever continue this nonsense, maybe to show me a Rose who’s actually happy as a robot or something? But... er, that’s not the point. The point is that even though the story “isn’t over”, it’s left so it CAN continue, so that the final state of these ISN’T a permanent cliffhanger to be left forever unfulfilled intentionally. I’ll still be traumatized by the state some of these characters are left in, until Andrew maybe possibly chooses to resolve some of this nonsense with later content, which he probably won’t. Heck, this actually might be easier for him to create a new work with, given how much baggage has been left behind on old Earth and in the singularity, so all you have is a much relatively smaller cast of characters on a chase to wherever Dirk is planning to go? But, like. When I read that Postscript, I stopped believing anyone I saw suggesting we’d get anything after this. Any sort of work of... you know... continuing, er, Homestuckiness from Andrew, no matter what it was. But even just... leaving it open even if he isn’t going to DO anything about it, and having that final line NOT be an aggressive cutoff? Is just nice. Nicer, anyway.

And this singularity is kept safe for us to enjoy ALL of the old stuff, the multitude of possibility that the in-singularity version of Roxy glimpses out of the side of her eye. That--

Oh my Gosh. THAT’S also what the final line means.

Above this line resides all that matters. Below exists all else. Never again the twain shall meet.

Homestuck fanfiction is now COMPLETELY FREE FROM CANON.

Within this singularity, nothing has to stay true to absolutely every underpinning of the earlier comic. Nothing has to make sense. Nothing has to be narratively consistent with anything else, though it’s obviously more enjoyable if it is. Truth, essentiality, and relevance may all be FLEXED as much as any individual fanfic writer needs to! And... and earlier, before this epilogue. When we would get Snapchat stuff of the story on Earth C. And even before that when all we had was the ending flash. There was still a FEAR on many parts that there was more to canon that Andrew wasn’t telling us, that whatever was in our imaginations about what may have happened was “wrong”, that any fanfic you wrote was liable to be disproven formally. But that’s not the case anymore. Because with that line, with alt!Callie sealing off this realm and taking just a last few soon-to-be canon-impactors out of one of its timelines, Andrew has left ALL of the earlier trappings of Homestuck, of Earth, of all these characters and ghosts and fragmented possibilities, permanently free from canon influence from the rest of time. Meaning no Homestuck fanfic that takes place in this singularity-granted realm may EVER be busted by Andrew’s future work. He’s done what he first aspired to do when he declared all fantrolls in existence canon. He’s finally “killed the author”. He’s made the very FACT of an author an enemy, to be pursued in its own canon story outside of all this. He’s set EVERYTHING free.

Wow. So that’s what all the point of all this was, huh? :D

Let me read the last few pages of Candy anyway. Where was I again?

Oh, about to click the last page. ==>

Oh my GOD. This Postscript is about the end of MEAT, where the Meat Postscript showed us the end of CANDY!!! :D

Let’s hear where this shit is all going! I’ve been wondering what realm Dirk is actually heading towards to try and start fucking up. Reading...

...Oh, okay. I thought I glimpsed someone mentioning something about Rose “doing Dirk’s laundry”, and I thought I just missed some narrative comment on laundry made when Dirk took Rose out of the apartment on that final trip out to Jake’s for a spaceship? But I guess this was the scene they were talking about. Fuck you, Dirk.

One of her more reckless shipmates chipped a tooth trying one, despite repeated warnings to stay away from the stuff.

So Terezi IS there? And probably received that final message from Vriska to think about.

It’s a stray ruby slipper. The other is about ten feet away, down the hall. No sign of their owner anywhere.

Yep, that’s definitely Terezi.

...Oh cool, Rose’s body isn’t quite dead? She could be returned to it or a souped-up version of it if she’s ever brought to her senses outside Dirk’s corrosive influence.

A new planet is within sensor range. She studies the millions of statistics all pouring in at once.

They’re heading for a planet? Somewhere else in Universe C?

It’s an M-Class planet. The right size, right age, right distance from the sun. There’s no advanced life yet. It’s exactly what they’ve been looking for all these years.

Shit, a NEW planet? For all this shit to go down on? Maybe I don’t need to see what happens next, that sounds potentially a little boring. The future adventure this story entails COULD just be implied and never followed up on.

Once the new race has established

What race??? Human, hybrid?? It’s not TROLL, y’all would have brought Aradia if that was the case, right? Or is this why there are tons of trolls in Universe C that Caliborn and Calliope’s parent trolls got to incinerate ages later, seeded across planets by these assholes?

The ones who get the chance to play what will arguably be the most important session in the history of Sburb?

Ahhh. Okay. So this may INDEED be something interesting, something worth seeing. A new session, one where Dirk is the villain, Rosebot is enthralled, and old heroes are on their way to help see him thwarted. Along with the mystery participants of a session we’ve yet to see.

Enough time goes by that she begins to wonder if he’s asleep. But no. It’s just the irritated silence of a man who knows he isn’t currently dressed well enough to attend to something important.

DIRK: Are my fucking pantaloons ready yet?

Yeah, fuck you and your anime pantaloons straight in the Yaois, Dirk Smartass.

Okay!

So that’s the end of the epilogue. BOTH epilogues. And... I like it.

I don’t know why. I mean it was all excellent before, and my stomach’s still a BIT clenchy, but I like it now. I misinterpreted things from the Meat ending, and now everything... everything makes a little more sense. Some things seem resolved, others earned...

And... in a way I feel like I could actually oddly accept, even if there’s never anything that touches on this ever again...

It doesn’t seem “over”. :)

#Homestuck #Homestuck Epilogue #Upd8 #Homestuck Liveblog #bladekindeyewear #BlastYoBoots #Barack Obama

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mmmmalo · 6 years ago

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I’m keeping up with macklives (homestuck liveblog) and the recent bits with John all seem interested in names... with Karkat the conversation introduces the idea of troll movies having titles that match the content, and then with Terezi he gets a code for the rocket pack of PCHOOOOO, which is a rocket sound. Interesting then they manifest in response to John doing the Reunite with Your Loving Wife and Daughter bit from Con Air... which has the ambiguity of John ‘uniting’ with the role of the dad (Cameron Poe) in order to ‘unite’ with the girls.

I admit this amounts to confirmation bias and cherry picking, but since this is a part of the story where manifestation readings were lacking, I’m pretty invested in the possibility that June feelings offer an explanation -- so I’m tentatively wondering if the ambiguity of identification with Con Air directly results in bits dedicated to the unveiling of a True Name, with trans feelings as a potential through-line? (I should probably revisit BYB’s Breath/Blood post and try to integrate his remarks on the rocket...) Also potentially relevant that this is the point where Karkat first mentions Serendipity, in which John Cusack plays a closeted trans woman (x) -- but I have no way of knowing for sure if Hussie arrived at that reading as well.

My initial reading of Terezi manifesting as John finds the wreckage of his Dad’s car was that she was a result of guilt -- like John blamed himself for the wreckage of the car, which resulted in smiling alien lawyer leading him to his execution, like he felt he deserved. But given the Epilogues, I feel like I ought to take another look... the car showed up /after/ Terezi in the second instance, but the reiteration of an association between the two is curious.

...I went back and basically got nothing, except for Terezi giving John an incomprehensible map, which could be related to the name shenanigans that follow on a map-territory level? But that’s not much to go off of.

It’s also interesting that John’s scenes are interrupted by some Kanaya/Tavros convos about trying to befriend Rose/Dave via “shallow and insincere hostilities”...I don’t tend to view the montage effect as being a ubiquitous as manifestation, but under the assumption that scenes are linked thematically, it might be useful to dig into even non-troll sections for clues on how to read the surrounding manifestations.

#homestuck reread 3 #john #terezi

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momestuck · 6 years ago

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Epilogues: Candy, Ch 16-21 [Epilogue 4]

So we’ve lost (spoilers will remain below the cut). This section starts progressing a lot faster, as the couples we’ve established all very rapidly start adopting kids. Jane’s whole eugenic vision, and fucked up relationships, starts coming much more to the forefront.

I call this the “we live in a society” chapter. Or perhaps the “edelman” chapter.

Chapter 16

At this point we get a six month time skip. Or for Terezi, a single day timeskip, because apparently there’s heavy time dilation between Earth C and the Furthest Ring.

The wedding itself is handled by recap, emphasising anecdotes. Of note is that Terezi is continuing to ghost basically the entire cast apart from John, which she claims is because he’s the most annoying.

In fact this entire chapter is text convos between John and Terezi, which is a nice return to early Homestuck when typing quirks were actually, well, typing quirks lol. Jane, it turns out, is now dating both Gamzee and Jake, which, well, ok.

ok.

anyway, there’s some wonderful dialogue on kismesis relationships at least:

TEREZI: Resentment can be fine in a short term black affair if the gaol is just to fill pails and avoid culling.

TEREZI: But in a sustained romantic rivalry it will always spell ruin.

TEREZI: Just like in a caliginous relationship, how it’s important for you to be able to communicate with your kismesis.

The rest of Terezi’s dialogue, talking a bit about Vriska, is a joy to read. I miss Terezi.

Oh yeah and Roxy’s pregnant. That’s important! Their wedding was 6 months prior, though it’s not clear from the narration when their baby was conceived.

Chapter 17

Another three month timeskip. That means nine months from the wedding - just about long enough for John and Roxy’s baby to be born.

Rose and Kanaya have outright named their child Vriska, which is... ok she may be a clone but that’s one hell of a thing to put on a kid, fucking hell.

Like, just wow. Imagine knowing Vriska and deciding to not just adopt her clone but name her clone after her! I take back whatever dumb shit I was saying about Rose and Kanaya being well adjusted. Poor kid.

There’s an amusing conversation in which Kanaya has misconceptions about how human children are born - from Karkat, via Dave. This is really going hard on the whole reproductive futurism angle huh.

The question of Vriska’s name comes up. Rose says that Vriska defeated Lord English - apparently having entirely forgotten all the things she said before, about how that whole plot point of how he was ultimately defeated was unresolved.

JOHN: rose, no one knows what happened to lord english.

ROSE: Of course we do. Vriska used the juju and her accompanying ghost army to defeat him.

ROSE: Why else would we be here?

JOHN: i don’t think that’s what actually happened though!

KANAYA: Then What Did Happen John

JOHN: i... i JUST said! JOHN: no one knows!

So uh... it’s like there’s some all-encompassing force, pushing the kids towards a “happy ending” defined in terms of pairing up and raising kids, editing their memories to leave nothing unresolved... and only John seems to be immune?

And moreover, whatever this force is, it seems to have robbed Roxy of her independent will. She’s going along with whatever John wants - much to his consternation.

Everyone is contorting themselves into a standardised template of “adulthood”, focused on reproduction above all, telling themselves it will make them happy... even the lesbians!

(Is this all one massive attack against the Harry Potter epilogue lol)

Chapter 18

In this chapter, Jane explains the need for eugenics to Gamzee. She insists that, if trolls were allowed to outbreed humans, the ‘natural’ Alternian social order might assert itself. It’s not racism! Some of her best friends are trolls!

Gamzee suggests this might get her ‘cancelled’, and she calls him ‘a literal insect in clownface’. Because she’s totally not xenophobic or anything. They have kismesis-hatesex, which includes...

In spite of Jane’s protests, Gamzee makes a desperate play for a lusty squeeze. Jane puts up a valiant show of resistance, but Gamzee knows she has no real intent of fighting him off—it’s all part of the kismetic dance. He has his big clown mitts right on her busty bags, honking away.

...what feels to me like a dangerous blurring of consent lines. Bottom line: this relationship is all kinds of fucked up...

Also why did I have to see the words “busty bags” with my actual eyes.

Not sure what the story is going for with this troll eugenics plotline. Jane explicitly tries to draw a line between this and actual racism insofar as there are, she says, actual biological differences between humans and trolls such as birth rate, unlike human ‘races’ (the story does not deviate from the idea that the kids are ‘aracial’, incidentally, though it’s hard to take Jane as anything other than white the way she acts). But why does the narrative feel the need to go there? I guess it’s about Jane’s character specifically; the not-so-subtle fascism in her whole image as a ‘proper’ businesswoman. She’s just doing what needs to be done!

I recall that ‘prison camps’ was up there in the content warnings list.

The latest Homestuck Baby is named Tavros. Naming babies after your dead friends is all the rage these days!

The narration stays with Jake as he leaves the room, but we still hear more than we’d like of Jane and Gamzee fucking.

The subject of kids - the REPRODUCTIVE IMPERATIVE - comes up. Jade explains that merging with Beq has done something to her bits, so she won’t be getting pregnant. And nobody’s really feeling ectobiology. Though that’s probably not the biggest issue with her and Dave...

She says she’s discussed surrogacy with Rose, and neither Dave nor Karkat would be ‘the father’ in this scenario. Ah, I think I see where this might be going. Beq was a male dog, as I recall.

(so this is basically... V Homestuck, apopros of nothing: do you know i think jade probably has a dick)

Chapter 19

In accordance with our headlong rush into families and reproduction, John has started working on becoming his dad I guess? He has a moustache, and even carries a briefcase.

New world, new social order... or not, I guess.

Anyway, the troll racism/eugenics metaphor is really speeding up:

KARKAT: JADE, DON’T YOU READ THE NEWSPAPERS?

KARKAT: THE NEW ADMINISTRATION IS CRACKING DOWN ON CERTAIN KINDS OF INTERSPECIES ADOPTION LAWS.

KARKAT: IF YOU’RE SO INTENT ON IT BEING “THE THREE OF US,” WE LITERALLY WILL NOT BE ABLE TO ADOPT A HUMAN CHILD BECAUSE THE HUMAN ADMINISTRATION IS AFRAID THAT I’D...

KARKAT: I DON’T KNOW.

KARKAT: TEAR INTO IT, AND FEAST ON ITS ORGANS.

KARKAT: AND IN THAT KIND OF POLITICAL CLIMATE? WELL, I’M NOT SURE IT’S A WORLD I WOULD WANT TO RAISE A TROLL CHILD IN RIGHT NOW.

Later on they outright call Jane a fascist. Not beating about the bush here. And John has apparently described Jane’s treatment of Jake as outright rape, which his friends generally assent to.

Thinking I should have picked up more of that dynamic when I read the earlier Jane/Jake scenes. There was a line...

It’s not the most rousing speech Jake has ever given, but it seems satisfactory enough for Jane. He releases a tremendously relieved sigh when Jane breaks into a smile.

JANE: Oh, Jake!

He flails when she kisses him. But this time, there’s no doubt he hasn’t said no.

Yeah that pretty much made it clear didn’t it. Jane has absolutely no regard for Jake’s will; and Jake is in no way in this situation able to assert how much this dynamic is harming him, without Jane pulling out the same manipulative tricks, playing hard on his ridiculous ‘old-timey gentleman’ thing.

Anyway, any discussion of their own relationship is forestalled when a dead body of Jade falls from the sky! Apparently it’s a much younger version of Jade - the origin is utterly unclear. (Perhaps we’ll find out in the Meat storyline?)

Whatever the cause, it prompts Jade to go to Jane - whose Life powers could bring the dead Jade back, in theory.

Chapter 20

But Jane’s powers... don’t work at all. (Also her relationships are pretty dire and she’s exerting fascist influence behind the scenes). Apparently whatever’s afflicting this Jade is more fundamental than poison: a ‘metaphysical’ rot. Meanwhile, it’s heavily implied (as was more or less said outright earlier) that Rose’s Seer powers don’t work anymore.

Jade wonders if her presence in Earth C implies the other selves across other timelines can no longer exist. But this is maybe only brought up to dismiss it.

Instead, Roxy brings up the whole fascism thing - as a political divide pushing them apart (metaphor ahoy). Which prompts an impassioned - and justified - rant from Karkat. Gamzee steps in, and Karkat has a go at him too, and the way he’s exploiting his claimed ‘redemption’:

KARKAT: NO.

KARKAT: NEVER IN THE WILDEST DREAMS OF YOUR SOPOR SOAKED PEABRAIN WILL WE BE “MOTHERFUCKING GOOD,” GAMZEE.

KARKAT: BECAUSE YOU’RE SLEEPING WITH THE GODDAMN ENEMY.

KARKAT: BECAUSE I STILL HAVE NIGHTMARES ABOUT WHAT YOU DID.

KARKAT: AND BECAUSE YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THE FUCK YOU EVEN DID WRONG IN THE FIRST PLACE!

In the framing this story has developed, he’s not wrong, obviously. The words ‘redemption arc’ are thrown out again by Roxy and Jane in Gamzee’s defense, and Karkat storms out.

Karkat is good in the role of moral authority, directly confronting cruelty and hypocrisy that his more ‘polite’ friends would rather sweep under the rug in the name of unity. We see their reactions:

Karkat leaves a stunned silence in his wake. Jane fuming silently to herself, Kanaya and Rose exchanging a knowing look about World Politics, John chewing his lip and mulling about how Karkat is probably right, and how if he were braver, he would have backed him up.

Kanaya and Rose - on the ‘right side’, but in many ways, the middle class, above-it-all. John, the coward. Jane, put on the spot, soon falls back on her ideals of propriety...

Karkat’s ancestor was the Signless/Sufferer, who led a rebellion against the Condesce. Perhaps he’s stepping up to fill a similar role...

Chapter 21

As was discussed in the prior chapter, Roxy insists on holding a funeral for the dead alternate-universe Jade... for the sake of unity, or something. This works about as well as you might expect.

Oh, and, on the subject of Jake and Jane, well.

You gave it the old college try chap, Jake said to him earlier as he waxed his mustache in the mirror. But its better for a man to just let his wife do whatever she wants. I promise youll experience less pain that way old boy.

yeesh

Also Calliope is here! She gives a little speech about death, and shares a tender moment with Roxy... so... still playing into that ambiguity huh.

Then Aradia and Sollux show up?? I guess they were, technically, still alive! They have not, indeed, been absorbed by the big black hole... and they certainly liven things up.

Honestly, the massive pileup of characters leads to them playing off each other in ways I’ve really missed. It’s like a good old classic homestuck group chat feel.

Roxy gives a speech that’s ultimately all about Dirk - about the ways things might have been different, whether it’s even meaningfully possible to compare. Good old Homestuck themes. Then she has her actual baby because why not.

As if this isn’t enough melodrama for one chapter, Jade’s ‘corpse’ gets up, and reveals it’s not actually Jade in there at all, but... someone who speaks in red text, and is known to Calliope. Alt-Calliope perhaps..?

Sure enough, it is... the Calliope who predominated over Caliborn in an alternative branch of that timeline, who created the big black hole, and who has now arrived ‘to protect your world’.

Phew.

Epilogue 4 as a whole

Bloody hell that was something.

So Jane’s gone full fash. For significant chunks of the comic she was mind-controlled by the Condesce, but I guess within this story she’s capable of going fash on her own devices.

The awful relationship between Jade and Jake is well-realised, I think, for all its awfulness. It comes across as a believable, ugly dynamic.

The whole redemption arc thing, that keeps coming up - it’s about fiction, but perhaps also more broadly about transformative and restorative justice; the kind of difficult conversations that I struggle with a lot, of how we collectively and individually respond to instances of cruelty, abuse and violence, and how these things arise in the first place.

At its best, this story is challenging a perspective that people who have been hurt in terrible ways should be obliged to grant forgiveness and absolution; a ‘too easy’ story where all pain disappears and everyone can just be friends again. But we must avoid two failure modes: one is a model of the world which takes it that some people are just bad, justifying any extent of “retributive” violence, and systemising that in a way that can and will inevitably be directed as a further weapon against those who are vulnerable to it, rather than in any way that prevents harm. All expansions of prisons are justified by appealing to the worse “predators”, but they do basically nothing to prevent sexual violence (rather, they concentrate it) and instead conveniently provide slave labour.

But there is still an obvious danger in the presumption that someone who has learned to be abusive and controlling has ‘reformed’; of refusing to act when someone needs help. Any system can be exploited.

Note that, of course, there is a considerable gap between imprisoning Gamzee in a fridge, and welcoming him as part of the friendship circle. When practised on a community scale, exile is an instrument of violence, but no individual person or small friendship group is obliged to maintain a relationship with a particular person...

So that’s what it’s dealing with. Only with ‘lol this clown is gross’ jokes; Gamzee, as presented here, is a repulsive person in every way possible, and those who defend him are painted as idiots.

The whole thing with the clowns in Homestuck has always been a bit of a weird one. The cultural markers invoked are heavily associated with class: they’re dirty, they drink a lot, they’re literally juggalos. But they’re also declared to be the ruling class, relating to other trolls as oppressors. And of course, haha, it’s only jokes, right...

(That’s not to get into the extent that clown imagery is racialised in the US, because hoooo boy that’s a complicated one. Discussions of ‘coding’ in media can get horribly oversimplified, and I think I’ve put my foot in that elsewhere. Coding is never just one thing)

Anyway I’m probably like, going on too much about this. Tell me I’m full of shit lol.

Alt-Calliope is hopefully finally going to explain wtf is going on as a result of John’s dubious decision at the start.

#momestuck

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highly-opinionated-nerd · 7 years ago

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Homestuck marching band au

John plays keyboard in the pit. He’s pretty good, but hardly anyone can ever hear him because his speakers just aren’t loud enough. He’s been begging the director to buy new ones for years but it’ll probably never happen.

Sollux and Terezi are also in the pit. Sollux plays bassoon for concert season (a double reed instrument, in keeping with his theme), but for marching season he’s on mallet percussion. He’s quite good at it, too- he likes the parts that require two sets of mallets (again, in keeping with the theme) and will spend a lot of time and effort practicing to get them right

Terezi, blind as she is, could never hope to actually march on the field, but she still wanted to participate. So it’s the pit for her- playing mostly unpitched instruments, including crash cymbals and cowbell (her fave)

Aradia and Equius are also part of the percussion section, but on the drumline rather than in the pit- she on snare and he on quads. Equius is notorious for breaking sticks at incredible rates.

Jade and Eridan both play flute, although Eridan switches over to oboe for concert season. Neither of them is very good, unfortunately- Jade just can’t get the hang of playing and moving at the same time, no matter how hard she tries, and Eridan just can’t be bothered to put in too much effort

Nepeta plays Bb clarinet, and is known throughout the band for being unnaturally good at traverses. Jane plays bass clarinet, and is usually complaining about being drilled half a field away from anyone playing the same part as her.

Dave is an alto sax player. He’s a good enough marcher, and does well enough in concert season, but his true passion is jazz. He excels at improv- not only does he have an innate gift for it, he really enjoys it.

Dirk, on the other hand...he switches back and forth between tenor and bari sax as needed, and he also dabbles in jazz. But he doesn’t have Dave’s gift of improvisation. He knows all the theory backwards and forwards, but somehow he just can’t get the hang of it. But, give him a written-out part, no matter how difficult, and he’ll master it. He’s very very good with technical work.

Karkat plays trumpet. The director has to remind him almost daily to play softer, and not to stick out from the ensemble sound. He has a lot of struggles, and gets frustrated a lot, but at the end of the day he takes it very seriously.

Caliborn would be a trumpet too. There’s really no other place I could put him. His whole personality screams trumpet.

Vriska is a hornist. She and Karkat get into a lot of arguments as to which instrument is better. Her marching mellophone is an old silver one, which the school has owned for years and years. It’s a little dented and beat up, but she loves that horn.

As for low brass, Jake is a trombonist and Gamzee is a tuba player. Jake is also the type to dabble in jazz and do really well at improv- he operates on a ‘you just have to feel it’ type of basis, and doesn’t like to be constrained by time signatures or keys, but he gets along in the ensemble well enough. Gamzee, skinny and lanky as he is, hefts up that sousa like it weighs nothing, and never complains about having boring bassline parts. In fact, he prefers them. This kid was born to play a support instrument.

Feferi plays clarinet during concert season, and is very good at it, but everyone knows that it would be futile to try to convince her to play it for marching. She’s captain of the color guard, and that’s where her true passion lies. Flags, sabres, rifles, all of it- she makes every toss and every catch look so easy, even when she’s drenched in sweat from running all over the field, and she always has a huge smile on her face.

The marching band kids occasionally hang out with some of the other music kids from their school’s other various ensembles. There’s the orchestra kids- Rose the somewhat-snobby violinist, Tavros the cripplingly-shy violist, and Calliope the eager cellist. There’s the choir kids, too- Kanaya the reserved alto and Roxy the mezzo who everyone knows will grow up to have a wonderfully successful career in musical theater.

And, of course, there’s the director himself- a man who quite possibly has no idea what he’s doing, and often leaves the kids to their own devices (way more often than he should, really). A man who is just as surprised as you are that they actually manage to sound and look as good as they do out on the field. Just your average high school teacher....Mr. Hussie. Not that the kids never call him that. He’s just Hussie, or just Andrew, or even sometimes just Huss. He was a pianist in school who only got his teaching certificate as a backup, and has no idea how he ended up here, but it’s too late to back out now

#lest we forget:#I was in marching band for 7 years #so yes these are accurate #I'm enjoying myself IMMENSELY over here with this #homestuck #my ficlet #(?)#I want to do more with this one day #we'll see I guess

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signless-selfshipping · 3 years ago

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List of my F/O Tags (if an f/o doesnt havwe a tag they wvont be included here lol)

Quadrants

-Karkat; 🩸- hold my hand to keep me steady, just to be quiet with you (karkat) -Kankri; 🦀- no fighting wars, no ringing chimes, we're just feeling fine (kankri)

-Damara; 🥢- and the day has come where I have died, only to find I've come alive (damara) - Marsti; 🧹- if everything comes crashing down, i pray that you'll still be around (marsti)

-Tavros; 🦋- dream of me and i will let you know, that i am fine here (tavros) -Rufioh; 🦋- lonely hearts club, do you want to be with somebody like me? (rufioh)

-Mituna; 🛹- we're smashing mics in karaoke bars, you're running late with half your makeup on (mituna) -Cirava; 💻- baby run away, run away, to the sun, to the comfort (cirava)

-Azdaja; ⚡- got no heart to break, like it that way (azdaja) -Folykl<>Kuprum; ⚡🔋- yeah, I stole his phone, that put him in his place (foly and kuprum)

-Polypa; 🩹- i heard you talking in the back of my dreams (polypa) -Safe!Lanque; 🌷- come with me, my love, to the sea (lanque)

-Bronya; 🩺- are you falling in love? i've a feeling you are (bronya)

-Tegiri; ⚔- do-do-do do you want me to, spend some time sitting next to you? (tegiri) -Terezi; ⚖- lies are made by stories which we think of when we sleep (terezi)

-Remele; 🎨- when you wipe your tears, do you wipe them just for me? (remele) -Mallek; 💻- tell me how you feel about me, do you like or like like me? (mallek)

-Ardata; 💀- she's posting all the time but the boards are down, it's a burned out building (ardata) -Galekh; 📘- men reading fashion magazines, what a world it seems we live in (galekh)

-Zebruh; ❌- don't go there 'cause you'll never return, i know you think of me when you think of her (zebruh) -Equius; 🏹- mr blue, i told you that i love you, please believe me (equius)

-Horuss; 🔧- so I leave you with a smile, kiss you on the cheek and you will call it treason (horuss) -Marvus; 🎤- ladies and gents, this is the moment youre waiting for (marvus) -Meenah; 🔱- you give me diamonds, i give you nothing (meenah)

Romantic

-Bakugou; 🧨- i don’t wanna go to school tomorrow, i can’t study thinking about you (bakugou) -Marshall Lee; 🪓- i really dont buy that youre that kinda guy (marshall lee)

-Sebastian; 💻- do not enter is written on the doorway, why cant everyone just go away? except you, you can stay (sebastian) -Gasoline; ☠- i know I’m a freak, ripped the band aid, broke the peace (gasoline)

-Jeff; 🔪- something bad is ‘bout to happen to me, i don’t know it, but I feel it coming (jeff) -Teruki; 💜- i wish i could be a girl, and that way, you'd wish i could be your girlfriend, boyfriend (teruki)

-Opal; 💎- if you feel lonely, i could be lonely with you (opal) -Jerry; 🎟- my own personal sunset, to give each day its own diploma (jerry)

-Roger; ☎- i've been working on a unified theory, if I make it through tonight, everybody's gonna hear me out (roger) -Craig; 💡- i'm out on the block again, so hopped up that I can't pretend (craig)

-Oliver; 📽- cast all your spells, and there you have, that good old fashioned razzmatazz (oliver) -Randy; 🩹- a sweet tooth for you, i'm wide awake, the sugar went straight to my brain (randy)

Platonic

-Sundrop; ☀- everybody likes you! (sun) -Moondrop; 🌘- rises the moon (moon) -- Dual-tag is; ☀🌘- hug all your friends, and let them know youre not letting go (sun and moon)

#🩸- hold my hand to keep me steady just to be quiet with you (karkat)#🦀- no fighting wars no ringing chimes we're just feeling fine (kankri)#🥢- and the day has come where I have died only to find I've come alive (damara)#🧹- if everything comes crashing down i pray that you'll still be around (marsti)#🦋- dream of me and i will let you know that i am fine here (tavros)#🦋- lonely hearts club do you want to be with somebody like me? (rufioh)#🛹- we're smashing mics in karaoke bars you're running late with half your makeup on (mituna)#💻- baby run away run away to the sun to the comfort (cirava)#⚡- got no heart to break like it that way (azdaja)#⚡🔋- yeah I stole his phone that put him in his place (foly and kuprum)#🩹- i heard you talking in the back of my dreams (polypa)#🌷- come with me my love to the sea (lanque)#🩺- are you falling in love? i've a feeling you are (bronya)#⚔- do-do-do do you want me to spend some time sitting next to you? (tegiri)#⚖- lies are made by stories which we think of when we sleep (terezi)#🎨- when you wipe your tears do you wipe them just for me? (remele)#💻- tell me how you feel about me do you like or like like me? (mallek)#💀- she's posting all the time but the boards are down it's a burned out building (ardata)#📘- men reading fashion magazines what a world it seems we live in (galekh)#❌- don't go there 'cause you'll never return i know you think of me when you think of her (zebruh)#🏹- mr blue i told you that i love you please believe me (equius)#🔧- so I leave you with a smile kiss you on the cheek and you will call it treason (horuss)#🎤- ladies and gents this is the moment youre waiting for (marvus)#🔱- you give me diamonds i give you nothing (meenah)#🧨- i don’t wanna go to school tomorrow i can’t study thinking about you (bakugou)#🪓- i really dont buy that youre that kinda guy (marshall lee)#💻- do not enter is written on the doorway why cant everyone just go away? except you you can stay (sebastian)#☠- i know I’m a freak ripped the band aid broke the peace (gasoline)#🔪- something bad is ‘bout to happen to me i don’t know it but I feel it coming (jeff)#💜- i wish i could be a girl and that way you'd wish i could be your girlfriend boyfriend (teruki)

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twilightsporklez · 5 years ago

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For Want of a Nail, the Kin was Lost

Exactly two weeks ago, the world had entered the Darkest Timeline. Andrew Hussie, creator of Homestuck, had died from a heart attack at the ripe old age of sixty nine, and, as he had passed to the underworld, his creations had passed from the underworld to Earth. The constellations glittering in the sky, once beacons of hope, had loosened their chains and come down in order to destroy the world. The twelve trolls of Homestuck were alive, and they wanted humanity dead.

Story continued under the cut (cw: violence, death, gore)

Using their god-like powers, they first targeted power plants and the homes of world leaders. Then they came for the fans. They recruited readers of Homestuck in order to help them destroy Earth. Every one of them had agreed and had immediately sworn their loyalty.

Along with their rampages came another change. Everyone, overnight, had had their appearance changed to match that of their assigned zodiac kin. Deku, as far as he could tell, was a Vriska. He was pretty sure that his zodiac sign was Cancer, but maybe his birthday was on an edge day.

Deku had spent the first week hiding in his basement reading the entirety of Homestuck. His house had then been burned down by a rampant Sollux. Most of the city had been, actually. The only safe spots now were shelters with closely guarded locations.

He had spent the past few days wandering through the ravaged streets, searching for the location to a safehouse. The heat of the day beat down heavy against his cloak, but he dare not take it off in fear of burning his gray skin. According to a nearby spray-painted billboard, a brave Tavros had set up shop inside the EBGames he was standing in front of.

The surface was mostly bare during the day, but Deku was still cautious. He did a quick search of the surrounding parking lot before entering the lobby.

The doorbell chimed as he wiggled his way in. Deku pulled down his hood and waved at the Tavros.

"What are you in for today?" The Tavros wasn’t in character. Phew. Only those who had had quirks beforehand spoke with their typing quirk.

"Some food and a safe house, ideally." Deku turned and scanned the shelf that had used to house Nintendo games. It had a couple copies of the physical editions of Homestuck, along with a few handbooks for ‘your new troll body and you’. Deku sighed at the sight of them.

He heard a few thumps and some swearing, and turned around to find the Tavros bumping his wide horns against the door-frame of the back room. Ouch. Deku feigned interest in the handbooks to help the guy’s self esteem.

Along with the appearance and typing quirk of your assigned kin, you also gained their powers. Deku had been ecstatic at the news, but then, as always, inevitably disappointed, as it turned out that it only replaced your old quirk instead of fitting you with a new one. He was still powerless in a society filled with superheroes. Er, trolls. Quirk-having trolls were indistinguishable from the originals in every way other than their height, lack of limited immortality, attitude, and blood. Thankfully, everyone had kept their blood.

Tavros, having managed to not hit his horns this time, came back into the room carrying a couple loaves of bread and a map. "That'll be seventy dollars."

Shit. He didn't have any money. He didn't have any powers, either. The only thing Deku had, aside from his pure charisma and perceptiveness, was a bunch of weird paper that he had stolen while committing tax fraud. Wait. That's money. Deku paid quietly for the goods and then sat on the floor and took a bite of his spoils. Judging from the map, the safe house was three or four blocks away and pretty well guarded.

By the time he was finished memorizing the route, he had hungrily wolfed down an entire loaf of Wonder bread without noticing. Grabbing the remaining two loaves, he rolled up the map, pulled his faded orange hood back up, and left.

The constant surveillance of his surroundings turned a five minute walk into twenty, but it paid dividends. The original route shown on the map was crawling with Eridans looking for someone to take out their anger out on.

Happy with his avoidance of a close call, Deku examined his surroundings. The outside of the base was relatively hidden. It resembled a normal, beaten-up subway entrance. However, the bottom of the stairway was blocked off with metal and presumably, bullet proof glass with an open hole a the bottom, like at the movie theatres, or maybe a dentist. What were dentists hiding from? He would need to think about this immediately. He had time: there was a sign about someone being "OUT FOR LUNCH."

Just then, his phone went off. Labelled as the caller: "(Vriska)." Not one for dramatic pauses, Deku answered immediately.

The voice sounded female. It was hard to tell, because all they were saying was ‘doot’ over and over to the tune of some song that Deku didn't know. The audio quality was pretty bad too, like if someone made a SBAHJ podcast and then made it shittier. He hung up.

It was another ten minutes before someone came out. The Terezi had her hair cut short, and her left horn was chipped. She sat down in a chair in the booth and waved.

"N4M3??" Like eighty percent of the population, she had a quirk.

"Previously Izuku Midoriya. Currently assigned Vriska. Forgive me if I don't remove the hood."

"USU4LLY W3 CH3CK TH3 BLOOD OF SOM3ON3 B3FOR3 L3TT1NG TH3M 1N TO S33 TH3 BOSS BUT 1N YOUR C4S3 1T SHOULDNT M4TT3R."

Deku found that unsettling, but free room and board is free room and board, so he didn't question it. Terezi leaned back in her chair and slapped a button on the wall. The window between them swung open and Deku jumped back to avoid it.

“COM3 ON 1N.” Terezi moved her chair over to the side, and Deku saw that the interior was much larger than he had thought. It was a little bigger than a supply closet, and had pictures of various Homestuck characters plastered along the walls.

The space felt personal, so Deku didn’t lag behind when Terezi left down a hallway to the side.

After a short walk, the hallway opened up into an abandoned underground parking garage. The sturdy concrete walls were covered in graffiti, and most of the cars had doors busted open. Trolls from most of the hemospectrum were lazing around, talking and sleeping. All of them except for Cerulean bloods.

Maybe he should get to know the person—troll—currently leading him away from any witnesses.

Start simple. “Are Terezi’s powers any fun to use? I never had a quirk, so I’ll never get to experiment with mind-”

“1 DONT H4V3 4 QU1RK.”

“You don’t? Then why the typing quirk?” He would never have thought he would be having this kind of conversation.

“1 US3D TO K1N T3R3Z1. 1M V3RY S3NS1T1V3 4BOUT 1T.”

“I understand.” Deku did not understand, but he did not doubt for a moment that the 5’1” Terezi beside him could kill him instantly, even without a quirk.

Looping around cars, Terezi led him into another hallway, barking at some of the other trolls to keep it down during sleeping hours. They passed a few kitchens and supply closets, until winding up at an oak door.

"PL34S3 CLOS3 TH3 DOOR B3FOR3 YOU ST4RT BL33DING."

Deku hoped that she was joking. He took a breath in and opened the door.

An older-looking troll with long, tangled black hair sat in front of him. She wore a faded yellow robe with a sun poorly embroidered on it. Her tired face glowed a soft blue, and it scrunched up in seething hatred once all eight of her eyes saw who—what—he was.

Vriska shot her hand out towards him. Dice spilled out, zapping in the air and glowing brightly. "No dou8les!!!!!!!!!"

Deku pulled his hood on and ducked, narrowly avoiding certain death. "Wait!” Reminded of his conversation from earlier, he decided to lie. “I'm not a Vriska,” he said. "I'm a (Vriska). Completely different."

Vriska motioned for him to sit down. "Let's talk. And close the door 8ehind you."

It had been a few weeks since Deku had joined the underground group. He was sitting with the Terezi and Vriska he had met on the first day, conversing about possible long-term solutions to food shortages. It was difficult because they kept getting distracted and making out instead of getting work done.

“If we were to grow our own food above ground, we’d run the risk of being—er, 8eing tracked-” Deku cut himself off. A nearby Karkat had a knife in his hand. “Did you guys check everyone’s blood? I think that Karkat is about to kill someone.”

They stopped kissing and looked over to where Deku was pointing. Vriska reached into her bag and started rummaging through it. “First of all, not a dude. Second of all, o8viously I checked them all.”

Vriska pulled out a handful of dice and a tube of red chap-stick. Terezi gratefully took the chap-stick, biting into it like a Popsicle. They both stood up.

“WH4T 4R3 YOU DO1NG?” asked Terezi.

The Karkat smiled. “NOTHING.” He proceeded to walk over to a sleeping Sollux and pat him on the head.

“I have a new way to solve our food shortage. Reduce damand.” Vriska flung out her dice towards the red-tinged troll. They flashed and spun, until hitting the ground to reveal the damage count. Because of her luck, it was the maximum possible. Lightning shot out of the die and phased through the Karkat, killing him instantly.

Except, he wasn’t dead. He peeled himself off the pavement and dusted himself off.

Terezi turned towards Deku and Vriska. “OK4Y 1 TH1NK 1V3 FOUND TH3 PROBL3M. K4RK4T H4S MUT4NT BLOOD. TH4T 1S TO S4Y HUM4N BLOOD.”

Karkat nodded, as if to approve the theory. Apparently a blood test doesn't work if the one you're trying to find has freakishly normal human blood.

Vriska facepalmed. “This is so unfair. He never 8ecame a god in the alpha timeline!!!!!!!!”

The floor rumbled softly, and the roof started to crack and splinter. Beams of energy shot through the roof, and a large part of it collapsed. Hundreds of trolls streamed through the hole, carrying weaponry and a thirst for destruction. Homestucks. Did they not realize this conquest would result in the demise of humanity?

Initially filling the area with deafening shouting and pushing, they soon fell silent. A troll in a bright yellow robe floated above them, staring directly at the trio.

“It’s 8eneath me to ask nicely, 8ut please kill each other so that we don’t have to waste time.” She flipped her long black hair as if it were a simple request.

Deku, unsurprisingly, liked being alive. “What happens if we don’t?”

An enthusiastic Nepeta pulled out a gun and pointed it at him.

"Calm down. I'll deal with this 8ozo myself." Deku realized that floating above him was Her. The original Vriska.

He was doomed.

Vriska pulled out dice from her pocket and started playing with them in her hand. “I h8 doubles, 8ut I’ll give you one chance at redemption. Prove yourself a real fan and I’ll let you join my army.”

Deku considered his answer carefully. He didn’t have a lot of options. Better to go with something tried and true rather than lose at a Homestuck trivia contest. If it worked once, why not again? "I'm actually the original (Vriska). Don't kill me."

"It seems unlikely. Karkat, test her 8lood."

Okay yeah he was definitely doomed. Why did Vriska have to take basic safety precautions?

Karkat’s knife dripped with the yellow blood of a Sollux, and Deku cringed at the sight. Karkat came close to Deku, and took his arm in one hand. He carefully grazed the knife along Deku’s skin, letting the blood drip out for all to see.

Cerulean blood.

He was safe. But he was (Vriska)... And if he was (Vriska), then who was phone????????

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