#swapped to: lalonde a

[bloodswapkinfessions]

:oD -> the kid swaps for my timeline are so fucking stupid. ive got a jade egbert, a jane lalonde, a john strider and a dave harley, a dirk crocker, a rose lalonde but ROXY ways what the fuck, a jake strider and a roxy english. what. the fuck

-gamzee zahhak

oh that does sound really inconvenient to keep track of oh no

[ithinkdogshouldvote]

Guardian swap au for 4/13 ^ ^

[boobstrider]

she tries her best to be supportive

[weirdmageddon]

i love these tags this person is so right

actually, can you imagine if dave was raised by B1 roxy?

i wanna get into this actually

(ok i had to spend a few hours rewriting this because IT DIDNT FUCKING SAVE AFTER FIVE HOURS OF WRITING WHEN MY COMPUTER UPDATED WHILE I WAS AFK so it would mean a lot to show this post some appreciation. i LOVEEE hearing what other people have to say)

even though these things mom does are presented in an extravagant, kitsch, jokey way, her intentions always came from a place of sincerity. she is simply Funnie

but rose reads too far into it and assumes things that aren't there, that her mother is passive-aggressively feigning interest in rose's interests simply because the things she does are so extra. "why do all of this if not to mock me"

im telling you right now if dave lived in this household he wouldn't assume antagonism, he'd go,

don’t forget who LITERALLY patented tangible jpeg artifacts as their post-scratch adult self and scattered shitty scummed up statue of liberties all over the planet. theres no way some of that overboard artful shit wasnt post-ironic / circling back around to genuine funny sincerity

dave's natural state is funny sincerity like roxy. he's had the natural capacity for this type of humor from the start and this is the direction he goes towards when he grows out of his brother's shadow by the end of the comic. dave and roxy share an earnest “so bad its good” type of humor

(lots more under the cut; the length of this meta analysis just got unwieldly with all the pictures and whatnot)

despite the alcoholism, roxy is a supportive mother. she's not the ideal guardian but hells of a lot more supportive of her kid than bro is. if she knew dave's interests she would totally indulge in them with some over the top silly goofy haha shit as a genuine gesture simply because she loves him

rose isn't too keen on it though. but she is more similar to dirk in her natural state of thinking of overthinking shit and assuming the worst, like the tags said

and yes dave got the sweet cuddly yet sometimes backhanded ouppy gene from roxy, probably even moreso lol

roxy's even said rose "sounds like girl dirk"

side tangent here, but this is something i wanna talk about.

i dont think bro should ever be in custody of children ever but if theres anyone who would be up to the task it's rose probably. i know she'd be able to keep up with him. not only does she have a defined personality (dave is more malleable and absorbs his environment like a sponge), if anyone can pick apart B1 dirk's batshit brain and probably be right on the money it's her. lil cal has been pumping patriarchal nonsense into bro's head and rose would be able to bring the fucking facts to the table without losing her own and being a living example of a badass little girl. i also don't think bro would try to force masculine roles onto rose like he did with dave, seeing as she is a girl, so she would actually have more of a leg up and get some passes that dave was never afforded. and rose wouldn't stand idly and accept any bullshit; she is no doormat. and i think this would earn bro's respect

but anyway, from this, couldn't we conclude roxy "sounds like girl dave"?

yeah okay. we havent even gotten into their penchant for funny typos or misspeaks, deliberate or otherwise

so, dave's environment

the sentiment "god you hope you can be as good as your bro at this some day" might have been genuine at the time when he idolized bro but of course he's not able to express that in any sort of sincere fashion because he's in dirk's fucking household. and this level 10 irony shit isnt doing dave any favors

his role models were the Internet and a vague idea of what Bro was like. So he built up his facade based on irony–not the literary definition of irony, as Rose might be quick to point out, but a popular concept of irony based on the idea that things that didn’t make sense actually made sense in some roundabout way. As a master of irony, Dave probably reasoned, he could see in a way other people couldn’t why a world that was scary and didn’t make sense really did make sense, and could therefore convince those people that he was superior to them. And he would wield his knowledge to maintain the appearance of superiority by calling everything ironic and pretending he didn’t care about things that didn’t make sense, and he would use walls of vaguely rhyming words to keep everyone at arm’s length so they wouldn’t discover his insecurities (source)

roxy's style is the embodiment of post-irony. being raised by mom lalonde would be like being raised by joel vinesauce ok

what can i say ….. (getting meta about this actually, hussie got these jpeg wizard wallpapers from a spyware website. link takes some time to load because internet archive)

rose is quick to read post-irony as actually being a joke/insincere, which in bro's case would be true. but i believe dave's natural instinct, outside of the influence of bro, is to read post-irony as genuine, which is exactly how mom serves it. we see this as early as act 3 from him; he understands her motives better than rose does herself:

and in act 6 intermission 2 i think it's pretty clear

but the thing is, it's always genuine from her. dave wouldn't have to second guess it because he's not one to naturally second guess someone's sincerity; that was learned due to his bro being virtually unassailable

there two types of ironies at play here:

seems like a joke, is actually genuine (roxy)

doesnt seem like a joke, is actually a joke (dirk)

you can make the argument that the second is is more psychologically destructive because it makes you question the reality of what is genuine sentiment and what isn't. dave never knew what was genuine and what was irony so he just sort of existed in this sincerity-ironic limbo and always did the opposite of what he genuinely felt on principle even if it always did originate from a genuine place.

"it just a joke bro i was just being ironic i dont actually x" is so much more trust-breaking and psychologically damaging than "wait are you being serious" / "i am being so fucking fr rn davy gravy" / "ok thats actually pretty fucking awesome. giant ass wizard statue" / "RIGHT"

how much about dave would change do you think? his character arc would be completely different for one thing, i think he'd have it good aside from mom's alcohol issues. he'd be left with the sweet and funny parts of him that we see at the end of the comic. the fake coolguy stuff is out, but this remains. this is dave in his element and we see it as early as act 1

he'd probably have no shades growing up in the lalonde residence* either cause those were given to him by bro straight out of the crater as an extension of his own cool image. and john gave dave ben stiller’s aviators for his 13th birthday to replace them so he could “spread his wings”

dave said he was wearing them for the ironies but i kind of doubt it. maybe post-irony but there was some reacharound to it being genuine because dave never put those pointy anime shades on his face again.

*though... it’s kind of hard to imagine him without his shades at all? B2 dave still got stiller’s shades from stiller himself so maybe getting them is a universal constant. i can imagine mom getting him them as a birthday gift cause shes pretty wealthy and probably could buy it out in an auction. but also itd be cool if john still gave him it as a gift

dave is actually a lot more genuine and easy to read than he lets on even when grappling with his upbringing with B1 dirk (again, see this post). this can be seen all throughout he comic but a good example is the evolution of thoughts about his interest in the preserved dead things in his room:

if B1 roxy was dave's guardian he probably WOULD have pursued paleontology because she wouldve indulged him in it and probably find it cool and worthwhile to pursue, instead of allowing dave to flounder under ironic detachment, being poisoned by irony to the point of gaslighting himself into believing he doesnt actually believe he thinks this shit is cool. even if it was indulged in this such a way; a superficially kitsch and ironic appearing presentation, it comes from a genuine place and inspires genuine interest. just read the comments.

basically, i think if B1 roxy raised dave, their relationship would have a surface level appearance of being bizarre or over-the-top but they’d have an unsaid mutual understanding that it’s completely in earnest and just build on each other's funny and absurd gestures of affection. rather than seeing it as one-upping each other, it'd more like collaboration of some silly bullshit that you take a step back and look at full and just say, "fucking incredible"

speaking of paleontology, mom had the proto-ectobiology lab. maybe they'd be able to use the equipment to appearify paradox ghost imprints of the dead shit to create paradox clones of things from the cambrian era??? sounds like a fun mother son bonding activity. and theyd actually put the sciencey shit in the household to use

oh god i know exactly the kinds of music shed listen too also growing up as a teen in the 80s. she on that (post)-punk/art rock/new wave/new romantic mtv stuff. XTC shit fr. this is a B-52S HOUSEHOLD. maybe the associates for the campy melodramatic flair. so he gets to keep the record on his shirt cause he is an enjoyer of the shit in her vinyl collection. dave would still gravitate towards musical expression and music itself but of more variety outside of just rap, with an 80s-90s, even 70s flavor due to mom’s influence. see this for perhaps a glimpse. ​she probably visited new york city a lot for business trips and because the music scene was cool as hell around that time, imports came straight from jfk airport, she probably got in on that a bit and have remnants in the form of vinyls and cassettes. in this way she could be distributing void to dave (influencing him with forgotten / presently irrelevant music). now he can REALLY rave about bands none of his friends have heard of. “hey davy grvay watcha listenin to” (he holds up vinyl cover) “omg snakefinger”

btw dave lalonde would look like this to me

[zan0tix]

SpeciesSwap sprites/designs I did a few months ago :)

Might flesh them out more but I dont really have any story or anything besides that Jake is a fuschia blood hiding as an olive blood (the ends of his horns are fake)

[bottlehawk]

shame

[esmeblaise]

You guys really liked my swap au with davekat as rosemary so heres rosemary as davekat

[legallypunkin]

Here’s my rendition of the Homestuck kids as trolls. I used preexisting canon (or postcanon) trollsona sprites as a jumping off point, though for some I couldn’t.

(Here’s the trolls as kids!!)

Design explanations will be under the cut.

Jake English: I chose to make Jake burgundy due to the Hiveswap description. I personally am not too much of a fan of these descriptions, as they really only apply to the main twelve trolls, if even that, but I was otherwise lost on Jake. His socks are indigo to reference the Alternian idea of wearing the blood color of someone you share a quadrant with, especially as a lowblood, to signify that you shouldn't be messed with. His horns are taken from Calliope's trollsona, as Jake is the closest relative to Lord English, and there's probably some symbolism there. As for the name "Jaking Enlish", I simply scrambled his original name a bit to make it fit the 6x6 naming conventions.

Dave Strider: I chose to make Dave gold due to his early shown proficiencies with tech. The horns are taken from his canon trollsona, and them having two starting points before merging into a single horn at the tip is similar to that of a few background Hiveswap trolls. His name is a reference to Davesprite, being a crow.

Roxy Lalonde: She is very connected to cats, even down to her human symbol, so who am I to get rid of that connection? Her horns are meant to look both like cat ears as well as hearts, and her hair was reshaped a bit for a spikier appearance. Her dress is her party dress, and, as seen in Jake's trollsona, Roxy too wears the blood color of someone she is in quadrants with. Her name isn't too much of a change.

Jade Harley: I made Jade jade because I thought it was funny, that is literally it. Her original trollsona was pretty good, and I replaced her god tier fit with a sort of horrid amalgamation of some other fits. Now that we've seen Fiamet with a tail, I figured I could give Jade one as well as ears, and I figure her working in the brooding caverns gives her a much lower likelihood of early culling. She also does breed the frogs, so that's got to be worth something. Her shoes are red because red seems to be one color which numerous trolls of all castes accessorize with, and her name is a combination of - you guessed it - the words "Jade" and "pup", with her last name remaining the same.

John Egbert: John gets to be a tealblood almost entirely due to his father. He's an unassuming guy from the suburbs who does menial officework. This also seems to be the fate of many tealbloods, so boom. Teal John. His horns are similar to those of Xefros, as, again, unassuming protagonist guy. I did give him sharper teeth, though, as burgundy bloods are the only caste with dull teeth, and I also fixed up his hair a bit. His name comes from a combination of "John" and "June" because I am a fan of both, and again, his last name remains the same.

Dirk Strider: The ties between Dirk and Equius are unavoidable, of course Dirk is going to be indigo. His horn is taken from his trollsona. His name is just "Dirk" but fancier and longer.

Rose Lalonde: Violet because of the horrorterrors. Took her original trollsona and gave it piercings because she's simply too goth not to. I also changed up her original dress a bit, made it more vibrant and closer to violet. Her name follows Roxy's pattern, but now with a closed consonant to end it off.

Jane Crocker: If you didn't think I was going to make her fuschia, you don't understand the depths of my autism. Her entire family line is fuschia, what other color COULD I make her?? Her trollsona is so baked into her appearance here, alongside her crockertier form. Still, Jane is butch in my heart of hearts, so she got to wear a suit instead of a dress (taken from Dave's sprites) and her pair of shorts and slippers(?). Her name is taken from her friend's nickname for her, "Janey".

[garysprites]

Rose, John and Jade with Dave's glasses

[0of64]

So like uh... I had an idea last night-

(Still reading don't spoil!!! Thanks :) )

[turnstechgodhead]

roslyn cassiopeia lalonde and dawn-david evan strider

[bloodswapkinfessions]

bwugh dave lalonde [roxyways] here and i miss my stupid heart galsses!! i miss my cat!! i miss my sister/brother [rose got fun w zer gender love that for xem]!!! graghggh i want my guys back. my stupid awful friends. rose strider im shaking you around in my head rn. junebug. mx english. you horrible beast /aff. JADE. I MISS YOUR BAKING. RAGH.

YEAHHH HEART GLASSES REAL i hope you find everybody :D also if you ever wanna post a real canon call in my inbox go ahead!!!!

[abbastuck]

My, my, how can I resist ya?

Welcome to ABBAstuck!

ABBAstuck is your standard Alpha & Beta kid swap, with my own twists to it! The Beta trolls are replaced with the Alpha trolls, and the cherubs are replaced with two others- their parents. By no means is this a 1-to-1 universe. There are several key changes and things go very differently in my mind.

This is mostly a pretty darn angsty universe, with several depictions of mental illness, abuse, neglect, and substance abuse. There MAY be ships, but they are not my priority.

As a disclaimer, I will add that the DID portrayed in this AU is written by someone with OSDD. It may be a fictional portrayal, but it is based off my own experiences with a dissociative disorder. I do NOT have MADD and may write it inaccurately. Do not use medias as your only source of mental illness information .

Character list below the cut.

Jane Egbert

John Crocker

Rosy Lalonde (Roxy)

Roxe Lalonde (Rose)

Dark Strider & Sys (Dirk)

Dive Strider (Dave)

Jake Harley

Jade English

Damara Megido

Rufioh Nitram

Mituna Captor

Kankri Vantas

Meulin Leijon

Porrim Maryam

Latula Pyrope

Aranea Serket

Horuss Zahhak

Kurloz Makara

Cronus Ampora

Meenah Peixes

Calamity

Calignus

[quillxpy]

YEAAAH WH69P DE D69. S9 ANYWAY, I DREW THE MER VERS 9F MYSELF 6ECAUSE I’M AN AUTISTIC LITTLE FREAK WITH T69 MUCH TIME 9N MY HANDS. F9CUS 9N THE SEC9ND 9NE. FUCHSIA BL69D. AIN’T THAT THE DARNEST THING. 6ASHING MY HEAD INT9 THE FUCKING FL69R!!

[weirdmageddon]

some dave lalonde ideas lol...idk if i like the hair curl or not...something about it here is too busy in the design without much counterbalance? too "feminine"...? i mean granted being raised by mom would make dave be more in touch with his inborn softer side. not that he'd be completely effeminate though, he's just more natural in presentation instead of trying to be hardass macho like bro but the design should still communicate "masc"

i noticed a big thing about dave lalonde is naturality, to his design, to his relationship with earnestness and post-irony (that wraps back around to genuine sentiment) and that being his natural type of humor and communication (like roxy herself), instead of artificially inflating the irony layers with bro

i LOVE the idea of him unlocking the roxy curl with conditioner and in my head it would look EXACTLY like dave’s hair in lobster’s art but im kind of on the fence about the execution just from an appealing/balanced character design perspective... hmm.

edit: i changed the swirl in the sprite edits so that it's less "dense" -- taking it from mom's sprite instead of roxy's, and it looks a whole lot better. it also sort of looks like a bass clef which is fitting for dave's music interest lol

regardless heres the ride edits without.

let me know what you think

[mutiemagic]

Hello!!! Maybz you can make Jade Lalonde hugging Nepeta Maryam :?

Would appreciate it :D

Separate designs under the cut!!!