#alternia's dawn

[almostourgalaxy]

The Face You Wwvear To Please Them

[almostourgalaxy]

I HAVVWE SO MANY THOUGHTS

Thinking about the ancestors and how we really know next to nothing about most of them. Like we have their professions and how they died but save for the lowbloods we don’t really know how any of them acted or interacted with others.

The case of this that interests me the most is actually Dualscar, because while I can imagine Latula as Redglare and (vaguely) Horuss as Darkleer, Dualscar just evades me.

Of course he was likely stuck up, and apparently one sided flushed for HIC. Blah blah blah typical highblood stuff. But he was also Cronus, and an Orphaner. I am so curious to get any relative glimpse into his head. Especially because I don’t see a lot of him in the fandom in a more serious/headcanon-ish light.

Like how does Cronus translate to a life on Alternia? Being a hunter of lusi is likely emotionally damaging during younger years, but we don’t even know if he was doing that his whole life like Eridan was because there were other adults on the planet. We know that he met his end because he couldn’t tell a joke, but was that really it or was it speculation because HIC wanted him dead or something? I doubt she’d just let him die otherwise, GHB or not. He was an orphaner, that’s an important job, even if he could be replaced.

I’m starving to know more about this troll-

Did he have previous connections with the grand highblood? The interactions between Gamzee and Eridan as well as Cronus and Kurloz kind of suggest this.

Was he just another violet or did he know Condy when the two of them were younger like Eridan and Feferi?

Did he have Cro’s need for attention? Was he as violent as Eridan? Did he like history? Did he have a secret interest in magic? Where did he get ahab’s crosshairs from? After all, he owned it first.

Did he ever feel like something in his life was missing? He was a hope player after all, did he have anything to believe in?

Did he ever have a moment, perhaps before he died, where he wondered if all of it was fair? After all, he played his cards and lost anyway. Trying to be the best highblood he could be only got him an early grave. So was it worth it at all?

As far as I can remember, Dualscar’s tales were documented by mindfang, who’s an unreliable narrator, so I take her reasonings and explanations with a grain of salt.

I just wonder what Dualscar’s story would be like if we got to see a little more.

[thewertsearch]

The heroes chose to accept this bargain, and scratched their session. In doing so they jumpstarted the reality in which the twenty-four figures of legend would together be created - and I as well - and then sent back in time to take our places in history. Though I was delivered well before history even began, before the dawning of life on their planet. This time around, I would oversee its development, and thus fulfill the mother's promise of an aggressive, ruthlessly prepared group of heroes. One that would not rest until victory was secured.

It sounds like Scratch's changes weren't really about combat ability at all. Instead, he was more concerned with ensuring the trolls were psychologically prepared to face the game. We don't really know what made the pre-Alternians so bad at Sgrub, but Scratch solved any and all such problems by replacing them with a group of belligerent power-gamers who sought to conquer the universe they made. Thanks, Doc!

Also – this might be a little pedantic, but did the post-Scratch session really count as a victory? I mean, when your frog is terminal, your universe is sealed off, and your species is almost extinct, can you really say you won?

The pre-Alternians might have grounds to sue, is what I’m trying to say.

The young twenty-four would again be scattered in two groups, twelve modern contemporaries, and twelve ancients. But in addition to losing their memories of everything that had happened before the scratch, there was another catch for the failed heroes. In the new reality, they would not serve as the heroes. They would mature to become the ancestors of the twelve they formerly regarded as theirs, and this twelve would be chosen for glory.

...the Ancestors were Alternia's original Players.

I speculated that the kids might change Guardians after the reboot - but for some reason, I never even considered that a Guardian could become a Player. If this is how a Scratch actually works...

This... this changes everything. This is Act 6's hidden twist - the fact that we're not going to be getting our kids at all. Homestuck's new heroes, the next session's champions, are Joan Egbert, Roxy Lalonde, Dale Strider, and...

and...

PEN-PAL IS THE SCRATCHED VERSION OF GRANDPA.

Jesus christ, everything fits. He's a child with Grandpa’s mannerisms because they’re time-duplicates, and it's looking increasingly likely that memories can bleed between the two. He recognizes Jade as his 'grandmother' because in his timeline, Jade arrived before he did, and became the new matriarch of the Harley family. He knows about Earth culture because he grew up on another Earth. His access to the bunny's endgame weapons... is still a little confusing, actually, but this fits literally everything else. I am absolutely, 100% confident that this is the answer to Homestuck's most maddening riddle.

I can't fucking believe what I'm reading. Literally every prediction I have about Homestuck's future is going to have to change.

[lime-bloods]

some less cohesive thoughts wrt something touched on in that last post.

i have assumed in some previous posts that by killing Calliope, Caliborn carves out some essential part of himself, and is thus cursed to an eternal Lack no matter the effort he might put into self-improvement. and while this is at least one interpretation proferred by the text, there is a fair argument i think to be made that it's a cruel or even ableist one. the idea that Caliborn is "stunted" is ultimately a bit of poking fun (possibly even at the author's own neuroses). while Caliborn makes it easy for us to come away with the impression that he's stupid, he's clearly not: his original plan to pass on the assassination of Calliope's dream self to Jack Noir is, yes, an evil plan, but it's a clever one! Calliope's underestimation of Caliborn's twisted genius is clearly a part of what allows the plan to work in the first place, and in retrospect this subterfuge clearly prefigures the kind of underhanded dealings that allowed Caliborn to take such complete control of Alternia.

I think it's very tempting to see Scratch's knack for manipulation as something Caliborn "stole" wholesale from Dirk-as-AR: the "Land of Someone's Handicrafts I Took" certainly comes across as a suggestion that Caliborn is incapable of truly creating anything for himself. but this too is just making fun of Homestuck's long-standing love affair with the Google image result photobash, and in the end the copy+paste only serves as one small step in Caliborn's creative journey. Lord English is a dark mirror of Hussie, after all, and to accuse Caliborn of being creatively bankrupt is to suggest Homestuck itself of lacking originality... but of course that's all part of the point. we can't necessarily assume Homestuck's default position is one of self-confidence; while it's never been particularly shy about the bits and pieces it aped from the works of fiction that came before it,* the comic crucially does set out to question the ethics of reusing ideas, or even of telling a story in the first place. that Hussie didn't even "create" his own characters - that they originate as some kind of timeless Platonic ideas that one merely plucks from the void when they're needed to tell a story - is essential to the comic's mythology; hell, how much of Homestuck even is there that isn't just a remix of Hussie's own previous work?

I asserted a couple years ago now that Homestuck is "only superficially" about creation and reproduction... but one particular rebuttal, that Homestuck actually very much is about reproduction in the sense that it is about the reproduction of images and ideas, has stuck with me since i first heard it. and though conversations about the difference between stealing / copying / learning / coming up with an original thought are obviously a LOT older than modern machine learning, given that Caliborn very literally goes on to become a Terminator-esque AI singularity (in a setting where all AI is just direct copies of living people's essences, no less!) and even played with early examples of tech bro grift a couple years before the debate really took off, I find it a fun thought exercise to ponder the ways in which Caliborn's contribution to Homestuck preempted the current discourse on algorithmically-generated art... which I suppose grows not just out of the more pedigreed argument about digital art as a medium, but probably stems all the way back to the dawn of comics as a medium, in all their entanglement with the burgeoning pop art movement. but that's about where my area of expertise ends.

*it's probably meaningful that the name of the planet Lord English "stole" his ideas for Alternia from, "befor-us", is so widely reinterpretable as referring to pretty much anything that came "before us".

[sunnetrolls]

Guys I Wanna Use More (w/ ways to plot with them!)

Elysia

She's one of my sea slug trolls, the Sagosa line!! As such her 'hair' is actually fleshy cerata like a sea slug. She's very peppy and upbeat and currently works at Vapore's smoothie bar as a waitress. It's an outdoor location by the beach and she's usually on rollerskates.

It's the best place to find her!! While you're there, if it's slow, you might be able to chat with her. It's polite not to flirt while she's working though--unless you're a hot butch lesbian, then she doesn't mind. Not at all

Lesath

Based loosely on the unkillable giant crocodile SCP as well as capybaras, Lesath has worked for the Fleet ever since they yoinked him as a kid and he's just resigned to it now. He's got an uncanny knack for not dying--he's not immortal or anything, just really hard to kill.

As such, he's usually assigned to dangerous tasks like guarding scary prisoners or anything with too much accident hazard for a normal guy to take the job. Right now he spends a lot of his time with Commander Mantle, working with Fleet employed psions, but it's always possible that he gets reassigned for a time to work with other officers/ships.

Maasco

This country dogboy is a shepherd and livestock guardian guy. He doesn't really have much going on besides living out in the country and caring for his flock, but he could always use some company that's not a sheep...

Orcinus

Orci is a pretty straightforward guy. He's a heirkiller, he kills fuchsia heirs that don't align with his rebel group's radical rebellious ideology. He's in incredible need of someone who can get him to loosen up and enjoy life outside of his work every once in a while. Or we can write toxic yaoi. The possibilities are endless

Xylova

Oh Xylova... This guy needs a total rehaul after his previous plots fell through. He's based on Xylitol Nova Cookie from Cookie Run Ovenbreak. He's part of a population of trolls that crash landed on a strange alien planet millennia ago at the dawn of Alternian space expansion and were never rescued. Now, they have a whole civilization that has somehow managed to avoid direct colonial reconnection with their homeworld.

Unlike Alternians, trolls of all blood colors from this planet have gills to filter out toxic heavy metal fumes from the air and require a mineral-rich diet since their planet is almost entirely metal. Additionally, there's not much of a hemospectrum system, since really only red - pink - purple - blue colors exist and the way their civilization started wasn't exactly conducive to systematic hierarchy--if they didn't all work together they probably would have all died lol.

Plotting with him would require a large undertaking in me basically remaking his entire planet, but you could have a guy on it too if you want!

Erraizi

Lastly, on the topic of aliens-- not exactly a troll, Erraizi is one of my OTHER aliens!! They live on the planet Adehiiri. It was invaded by Alternia a few decades ago, but there's very minimal colonial presence due to how challenging it is to actually build on the planet's surface. Adehiiri is characterized by very strong magnetic fields that generate giant, miles-deep cavern systems where in some places the surface is only a few feet deep. The arran'roa, the native sapient species, can manipulate these magnetic fields to float through the air in the caverns. Adehiiri does have a space port though and it IS possible to live there as a troll, provided you have a way to get around!

[carcrash-ventass]

.: Pinned post time! :.

https://linktr.ee/clodinator

I may be a terminal Homestuck, but I'm a huge fan of Transformers and Splatoon. The Crow Strider AU also gives me unbelievable amounts of artist envy so there's that.

The only real tag I have for things is #clodinator, and that's just any standalone post or comment I leave on a post.

Scalemate comms

Chained

Homestuck fanventure staring a bunch of bird people and some carapacians running amuck. It shifts authorship every week so we're never quite sure where it'll go. I'm the one you'll usually find making the [S] pages.

Our group Tumblr is @chainsmithsnackmix

Ultrastuck

The efforts of the machines to invade hell have The machines efforts to invade hell have gone astray, resulting in cross-dimensional Skaian portals opening up to Earth and Alternia. This is mostly an excuse for me to make fun pairings, but I'll make some lore as we go.

Oh, and I guess I have this one too: My current fursona, lets see how long this one lasts. :]

Previous versions below:

Nix V2: on standby

Nix V1: Reformated

Unnamed Authorbird: Evolved into their own character

Dawn: Not a fur, but I still use her for Homestuck RP

Azbrug: My wet rat who I have trapped in my basement.

[cloudbattrolls]

So Far to Fall

This drabble is preceded by To Stave Off the End and followed by In Cold Blood.

Ullane Wistim & Epsilo Volant | Present Night

Late twilight hung over Chimer’s estate in a beautiful dark shade of blue, the color of relief from a recently set sun. 

The hive cast in warm glow and dark shadows was elegant without being opulent, a more lowkey building than one might expect to belong to a fuchsia. It had some well-maintained trees and a wild lawn, standing a short ways from other, similar hives also owned by highbloods in the rural area. 

In this part of Alternia, the dangerous local wildlife was kept under careful control by those who enjoyed hunting them. There were very few murders; most trolls around had what they needed. Lusii that ate trolls were forbidden, and culled if brought in. 

Ullane sat by the duck pond near the hive on a long low-set wicker lawn chair, watched the birds bob peacefully in the water, and was so bored she felt like she might start screaming.

She should be grateful, she knew, as she idly shredded grass with her hands. She was as safe as she could be, and had gotten off far more lightly than she deserved.

Yet she couldn’t contact her friends. Couldn’t make any sort of communication that could be tracked by the grey mob. 

They might still be hunting her.

She had made the trip here about a perigee ago disguised and under cloaking tech, but after the trial, they certainly would have put together how one of their number had been imprisoned. They may have also realized how another had lost an hour of his memory. 

Ullane now dressed in hemoanon colors whenever she stepped outside, and had swapped her symbol for a different one. She had stopped dying her hair and covering the marks on her face. 

She had - with slight reluctance - stopped wearing her contacts, letting her true violet-tinged eyes show. One could never be too careful. 

Her tail, too, flowed unbound behind her.

The former clinic administrator stared up at the stars starting to appear in the sky, a slight breeze rustling through the trees and tossing her ponytail.

She wasn’t sure what was more fantastical; having once been willingly possessed by a horrorterror and working with him to wrench her clinic away from the gang she had worked for, or being pursued by a different criminal syndicate after successfully escaping their attempt to frame her for murder.

The yellowblood thought of the lost Varzims. She’d seen Zanzul last when the violet had talked to Calcit for her, and Thrixe some time before the whole business started. 

Why was she safe, and they were trapped in the furthest ring? 

Nothing about her life made sense.

Only science ever had.

The lowblood fed the ducks some lettuce, scattering it over the water as they quacked and gathered to eat it, jostling for the leafy scraps.

Then she got up, and walked back inside with a blank expression. 

Hours passed in which she tried to read research papers, then cleaned the hive in the vain hope any excess dust had manifested since last night. She exercised, ate without really thinking about it, and fed her lusus his own dinner. 

Eventually, as dawn began to creep over the hive, she slipped into her recuperacoon and went to sleep.

Ullane sat bolt upright, gasping. Salt water welled from her mouth. She was - she was -

The water surrounding her rippled darkly, crushing down on her back and shoulders, yet she was not crushed. Violet tinged the liquid, galaxies of glowing lights slowly rising out of its depths, as if appearing from fog. 

She floated, suspended in this strange abyss, yet something about it was intimately familiar.

“Uryali.” she whispered.

She felt a rush of confirmation, of…relief?

What relief could she bring the Muted?

My DeScENDAANTSss are imPrISONED in the RING, came the voice that rose and fell in layered harmonies, a deep undercurrent of sadness welling through it. 

YoUUU heLPEd Us OOnCEE, MEDIIC. hElPP mE AGAAINN, foRR PESTILEnCE caaNNOT. THe fAEE have baRRED theiR reALMSss. buT yoU and I coULD opEEN thE wAY. 

“I am no medic.” She said softly. “Stripped of my title, my license.”

She felt…amusement? Amusement, and a hint of disdain.

alWAysS a mEDIC, medICC. yoU hEAL wITHoUT lAW. 

Ullane had no retort to that, and felt Uryali’s satisfaction.

sOO yOU wiLL Go. YoU WIlLL haVE to CRoSS ALl FOUR cOURTSS to fIND TOBRIA.

“Who?” She said with a frown.

hE PREDIictED theSE eVENTss. He Is a POWErful PRophet…or WAs.

Sadness again crashed over her like a wave.

“Why should I find him?”

oNlY hE cAN guIDE my DescENDANTS hOME. 

Ullane sighed and figured trying to ask more specific questions was probably pointless. 

It was a miracle to get this much sense out of the horrorterror…though, she supposed he had once been a troll. Thrixe had been able to stop him from destroying Nott Station in his anger, by appealing to what was left of his compassion. 

She’d watched as the horrorterror piloted her body, nearly killing her as an unintended side effect of his possession.

In light of this, a different - saner - person might have hesitated.

Ullane Wistim did not think of disobeying. The thought never entered her head.

“How will you help me?”

A vast starfish tendril reached up from the dark waters and placed its tip gently in her hand, leaving behind a small, unknown plant bud. 

tAKE pART of mE wiTH you. I wILL sPEAk in YoUR dREaMS, yoUR PsIiONICSs bOLSTERED by My poWER. 

We WiLl UnLock The WAy. I wILl gUiDE yoU.

She woke up heaving for air in her sopor slime, clawing at the edges of the cocoon. 

A dream. 

She licked her lips. They were crusted with salt.

Slowly, with dread, she turned her hand over.

A black bud lay tattooed - no - scarified on her palm. It…moved. The edges of it moved over her veins and the lines in her skin, rippling with her breaths, changing in the light as she tilted her hand. 

How had she bound herself? Could it be undone?

No - could she truly rescue the Varzims? Had the dream been real?

She took a deep breath and climbed out, green slime gently steaming away as she took off her day clothes and got dressed. 

Yes. Yes, she would accept it as true. She would question Uryali when she slept again. 

Ullane changed into clothes she hadn’t worn for a long time - her traveling wear, sturdy and full of pockets, warm and water-resistant. Her tail flicked, still unused to being free of clothing layers.

She had come from a town built over ley lines, a place full of undead, where magic had sunk into the roots of the place and things from daymares prowled.

Never had she imagined accepting a supernatural being’s bidding. Or asking one for aid.

She needed help, if she was to rescue the Varzims. She needed someone who she could rely on, though once she wouldn’t have dared trust him with anything.

She needed Epsilo Volant.

—

The violetblood was refining armor for his guild when he saw her, hands deep in a pile of monster samples - bone, horn, and carapace - that he was working with. He sat at his outside work bench, for the weather was fine and here he could see one of the island’s shores. 

At first, the former seadweller thought his eyes must be at fault when he saw her. He took off his glasses and squinted, wondering if he’d accidentally imbibed some sort of hallucinogen from his materials.

No, she was still coming closer, walking across the island, unbothered by any of the passing hunters or their palicos. He put them back on and got up, dipping his hands in the pot of disinfectant he kept nearby before he went over to meet the yellowblood.

“Wistim.” He said, neutral if respectful as she got within a few feet of him and stopped. “Why are you here?”

Last time they had spoken, he had asked for his fins and gills to be restored. For her to lift her part of the curse she and Uryali had laid on him. 

She had refused.

She smiled at him, a perfectly normal smile, yet the highblood found himself unsettled. 

Perhaps it was her violet-tinged eyes - a permanent remnant of her possession. Perhaps it was the way she looked at him - eager, fascinated, as if he was a particularly interesting specimen. It was not an expression he expected on a woman he had captured and given to a horrorterror. 

“I need you.” She said. “You’re a werehyena. Immune to horrorterror influence. Strong, and knowledgeable of animals. You want to be a seadweller again? Help me rescue the Varzims.”

Before he could respond, eyes widening in shock, the lowblood held up her hand.

It had a black bud inscribed on it. A…shifting…black bud, as if it moved in a wind. He could feel the energy from it; the same eldritch energy Vallis and all of Vernrot had. 

“Uryali has charged me to save them.” She continued. “I must cross the fae realms to seek aid - very dangerous, though I know something of their ways. I need a guard again. Will you help me?”

Speechless, the highblood couldn’t speak for a few moments, staring at her with a shocked expression, his mouth slightly open.

Then he shook his head and came back to himself, face settling into sheer disbelief.

“Wistim. This is suicide. The two of us in a strange land full of magical enemies? How will we eat and rest safely? How will we ensure we can return safely, or make it there to begin with? It is impossible.”

She stared back at him with those wide, strange eyes, as if he was the one who was being unreasonable.

Then she smiled again.

“I escaped you twice. I survived horrorterror possession. I have wrenched my clinic from the gang I once sold myself to. I have escaped another gang’s clutches, after I tracked and hunted two of their number. I once killed a whole gathering of corrupt jades.”

She raised and opened her arms.

All around her, the air turned headier with the scent of salt and life. The island’s plants curled and blossomed at her feet, roots rising up through the soil.

The hunters, attentive to any disturbance in bio-energy, stopped and stared, looking at the yellowblood and then at Epsilo. A few started to draw their weapons.

“Stop it.” He hissed. “They don’t take kindly to that here.”

He shook his head as she lowered her arms and the power waned, but he could still feel a crackle of it on his skin.

“Yes, I can tell you’re more powerful than before. Will that be enough?” He asked bluntly. “Having Uryali’s blessing doesn’t mean you can stand against every fae.” 

She raised her eyebrows.

“Don’t you want the Varzims back? For Vallis’s sake, if not your own needs?”

The former seadweller paused at the mention of his best friend. The man had been bereft when the other two horrorterror hybrids had left this world.

He scowled, thick arms folded under his light violet shirt.

The Varzims gone. Arty dead. Vannyn was away from Vernrot most of the time, and Lusien had the lighthouse to tend to…

He put a hand to his neck, where his gills had once been. Sometimes the places where they’d still ached at day, when he woke gasping for breath from a daymare of drowning.

“All right.” He finally said, turning around to walk back toward his hive. 

Sifrek wasn’t going to like this, Epsilo reflected as he thought of his primary guild contact and friend. Hopefully she would understand. 

Ullane easily fell into step next to him, her tufted tail waving back and forth. 

“I’ll go with you.” Said the highblood, waving to the hunters that everything was fine. The trolls and their feline companions heeded him, but their expressions remained wary.

“But first, I want more details. I’m not leaving unprepared.”

—

One night later, the pair left the island, taking a motorboat with one of the guild hunters back to the mainland. Winds tossed them about, making waves around them as they cut through the water, but the hunter’s control of the craft was steady and sure. 

They arrived on land none the worse for wear, though Epsilo looked like he was having second thoughts.

“Why you?” He asked Ullane as they set their feet back on land, thanking the hunter before they began to walk off. 

“Hm?” She said, almost absentminded, eyes ahead as she led them further inland.

“Why can’t Uryali simply possess someone and find this angel-fae himself?” The violet asked pointedly. “Why does he need us?” 

“Their body would break down before they made it.” Ullane said bluntly. “I nearly died on Nott, and he wasn’t trying to kill me. I have just enough of his power this time to guide us and help protect us; you can treat me if it starts to overwhelm me.”

“How likely is that?” Replied the highblood acidly.

She looked away from him, smiling slightly as she stared forward.

“It’ll happen in less than a week, regardless.”

The violet dragged a hand down his face, then heard a rumble of thunder.

He looked up, noting the dark clouds.

“Wistim. We should stop for the night. Where did you plan on staying before we left on this fool’s errand?”

“We keep going.” She said, eyes briefly flashing a brilliant pale magenta.

Epsilo shivered as the wind picked up as well, tossing his shoulder-length wavy hair around his head. He took out a band to tie it back. 

Why did the Varzims glow the color of moonlit snow, not ink-black like Vernrot’s terrors? 

He found he didn’t quite have the courage to ask right now, nor argue with his lowblooded companion.

So he silently followed her as it began to rain, and the lowblood didn’t seem to mind it at all. She did not shiver, nor falter from her path. Water dripped down her hair and tail as she forged on, leading him through bushes and trees as he cursed and had to detach his clothes at times.

“Wistim, slow down - “ He called irritably, and she waved a hand.

The thornbush that had just seized him began to droop from the weight of gray fungus sprung into existence on it, clinging to its bark.

Epsilo sprinted away from it, catching up to her panting and flecked with mud.

“That was unnecessary.” He said between breaths.

Again those unreadable eyes looked into his own.

“It worked.” She said calmly, and turned away from him again, pausing after a few steps.

The medic looked down at…a mushroom ring, Epsilo realized. 

He was no mycologist, but he recognized the species, red-capped and white-stalked. Fly agaric, one of the most toxic species there was.

The yellowblood got down on her knees, examining the ring with keen interest, her ears and tail flicking.

Then she swiped into the air above it with her marked hand, the air crackling with white energy as she - she pulled the world apart, creating a jagged rent within the circle as its mushrooms withered and rotted. The fungi then grew together in a thickening black mass as the rift widened and stabilized.

Now it was a gap large enough for both of them to pass through, but Epsilo could not see what was inside it; all he beheld was fog. He leaned over, trying to get a better look -

Ullane jumped inside and grabbed his arm, pulling him with unnatural strength beyond her caste and build as they both fell into the portal.

He yelled curses as they plummeted through the hazy air, writhing, but her grip was firm.

The haze cleared…and Epsilo’s eyes grew wide as his breath billowed out in awe.

Below them - stretching for miles and miles - was a wild land. Frozen forests of vast trees, branches interlocking and grown into fantastical woven shapes. Waterfalls of moving, frothing ice. Lakes set in tundra with waves cast in perfect, glittering frost. 

The wind around them swirled with snowflakes and stranger things, glowing blue insects that buzzed about, leaving shining trails in their wake. 

Even in the ocean, he had never seen anything so beautiful.

Beside him, Ullane laughed long and loud, and he tightened his grip on her hand.

There was still so far to fall. 

[indisfuckigntrolllllsssss]

[Lapita Fithum]

handle: crystallineSoldier

land: Land of Chains and Gusts (LOCAG)

Specibus: Shotgunkind

classpect: Prince of Blood

Prospit

Denizen: Medusa

Typing Quirk: .”THE QUICK BROWN FOX JUMPS OVER THE L🜍ZY DOG”

interests: HUNTING and STUDYING LAW

Lusus: N/A

Song: Numb - Marina and the Diamonds

lore under the cut!

He never remembered much from the earlier parts of his life. All he knew was the Traveling Cabaret, a traveling circus hosted by purplebloods and featured people all across the hemospectrum. From a rustblood with eight arms to a fuchsia with scaled wings, it seemed like a glorified freak show. He knew this all too well, as an olive without pupils. Even such a benign mutation prompted the circus to break into Lapita’s hive and paint the walls with his goat lusus’s rich olive blood. He was so young, only half a sweep old, but that memory has never left him. Fear led to hate, hate that he harbored for every member of the circus. He hated the people that called him “dead-eyed” and “a living corpse” and showed him off as a little party trick.

He hated everyone except for his moirail, a jadeblood named Marfen Pozlas, who had two unfortunate blessings. He was born male, and was a descendent of one of the most famous magicians on all of Alternia. Even with all the pressure on Marfen to be as good as the man who came before him, he still managed to smile so genuinely. Lapita idolized him, knew that he couldn’t live without his moirail.

Oh, the irony.

The circus had stopped at Thrashthrust, a dense forest on the outskirts of the city. After the day’s performance, at the crack of dawn, Marfen beckoned Lapita to meet him where nobody would see. The two stood in the middle of the forest’s clearing, the morning breeze ruffling their hair.

“aren’t you tired, lapita?

”TIRED OF WH🜍T, EX🜍CTLY?”

“aren’t you tired of being nothing *m*ore than just… their puppet…? don’t you *w*ant to break a*w*ay from it all?”

“WH🜍T 🜍RE YOU GETTING 🜍T?”

Marfen took Lapita’s hands in his, the morning sun reflecting in his childlike eyes, reignited with a new hope to live.

“*w*e can escape the*m*. right here, right no*w*.

“…”

“*w*e can *m*ake a ne*w* life for ourselves! no *m*ore *w*orrying about ho*w* *m*uch blood is going to be spilled today, no *m*o-“

Lapita punched Marfen across the face, his lack of pupils not hiding the sheer desolation in his facial expression.

“YOU RE🜍LLY 🜍RE 🜍 DUMB🜍SS KID. DO YOU H🜍VE 🜍NY IDE🜍 WH🜍T THEY’LL DO TO YOU OUTSIDE THIS PL🜍CE? THEY’LL JUST CULL YOU. 🜍 M🜍LE J🜍DE TH🜍T DOESN’T KNOW HOW TO C🜍RE FOR THE MOTHER GRUB? WORTHLESS. 🜍BSOLUTELY WORTHLESS, YOU HE🜍R ME?”

“lapita…”

“YOU KNOW WH🜍T? FINE. H🜍VE YOUR LITTLE ESC🜍PE F🜍NT🜍SY. WE BOTH KNOW YOU’LL END UP B🜍CK HERE 🜍S 🜍 CORPSE. SO GO. H🜍VE YOUR FUN, STUPID WIGGLER.”

Marfen was left in the woods outside, dazed and with tears of betrayal in his eyes. Over the horizon, he saw hundreds of trolls surround Lapita, demanding to know where his moirail went. He closed his eyes, waiting for him to point directly towards the forest.

He pointed towards the city.

That final act of protection may have cost a morailegance, but inadvertently saved two solitary lives.

He never saw Marfen again… at least not until he began to play.

[artbyifer]

Gardening for avosettas for Dawn Polyswap Promptfest 2021

jade teaching her girlfriends about gardening... you can't tell me that alternia isn't home to Exclusively carnivorous and venomous plants, so both aradia and nepeta are a little wary of jade's pumpkins and other vegetables, but that Immediately changes when they see jade lift two bags of soil over her shoulders at the same time like they're nothing. they've been distracted by Big Buff Girlfriend.

[froshele]

compiling this for my own nefarious needs but any of you with fanventures may be able to appreciate it:

List of things in Homestuck that are direct results of Scratch or Caliborn's involvement and would not exist in AUs without them,

Or: A Fansession Worldbuilding To Do List

Please feel free to rb with additions!

1. The troll caste system and society as we understand it

What's pivotal to the fuchsia hegemony more than literally anything else? Their psychic resistance, which is necessary to survive proximity to their living alien god? Sure, but canonically Doc Scratch introduced her after the... well, the scratch.

Glb'golyb isn't organically part of troll society in all universes and didn't choose to come down all theophanic and shit one day:

I like to think of her as the pet I gave to their race, at the dawn of their species' evolution. Again, it's just the sort of thing a good host does.

-- Scratch, panel 5936

She is also probably one cause (next to the everything proceeding from her) of everyone's nightmares and thus the invention of recuperacoons.

So whattafuck was going on before? Well, based on troll biology's every canonical indication, probably they were chugging along fine in discrete non-child-exiling hive societies run by mother grubs (who were once also people to them).

In the Beforus timeline it seems the concept of an empress is still real and she still is more important than the colony mother, so that's a cultural shift that may have been contemporary with the beginning of lusii as commensals (basically, queens lost sway as they made more longer lived more specialized workers, and those outsourced childcare to lusii).

In such a scenario it is your choice whether lusii are still a normal part of life for the trolls in your universe, and how your troll society developed is in your hands anyway so maybe none of this is real.

As for the other, canonically spacefaring terrors and cherubim, your fansession trolls could probably worship them just as well as having any other type of religion. It depends on what you want horrorterrors and cherubs (and angels more generally) to symbolize and do in your narrative.

2. The moons

Derse and Prospit are defined in gameplay by contact with Skaia and the Terrors respectively. But the Terrors are only talking because Caliborn is massacring them, though the planetary orbit does take it into the Furthest Ring where they live, so... do with that what you will. What are they doing? My headcanon personally is that they eat the detritus of finished or failed sessions... but not everyone has a take nearly so ecological.

Also! Chess usually has two players, but what if the tabletop war metaphor of your session is some form of checkers, or three player chess, or ...? :^) Why then you would need another portmanteau moon... back in the day we called it Derspit and we liked it!

3. Troll nocturnality

This is specific to Alternia. If your guys evolve somewhere else they may not face such a terrible sun...

4. The Green Moon and Sun

Didn't exist on Beforus! The Moon was created by the B1 kids for Green Sun shenanigans, which are impossible without it. Also to do with LE (presumably) and thus a post-Scratch world construction; first guardians (which Scratch is, and which he makes fusion caliborn upon, um, hosting him) probably act very differently for most fansessions.

5. Scratching and the Denizen Choice

Doc Scratch inherently is somehow connected to it. It may not be supposed or able to happen in worlds without him and Sburb forks without universe cancer, and the price may be steep for the fact that it does. After all, he has never failed to summon his master, who is always already here...

You may want to consider a few rule changes to your SBURB game. :^) What'd be new for Denizens without all this?

6. Troll religion, generally

Scratch is their First Guardian and sent them Glb'golyb. He/English are also the Mirthful Messiahs somehow (don't ask, it has to do with Gamzee and Arquiusprite also being components of English along with Caliborn), and probably paradoxically connected to,,, all the juggalononsense, and maybe the Jewish parallels idk I don't want them to be and so that's my blind spot, I don't care if they caused The System and neither has anyone fun ever. But maybe they did. In that case we must consider how they could not do that, which is not hard. Just as it takes more muscles to frown, it takes less brainpower to just handwave stuff like this as cultural development coincidence.

I think it's funny because we live in ICP town and so I keep it in when I fuck around in here, because I think the entire signless thing is interesting and leads to heartwrenching implications, but you actually can define your purples however. My homestuck-hiatused partner has one who's coded sort of like a commedia fuckup court reporter.

7. The entire canon limitations

All of it loops back to make English, so the MSPA reader stuff goes out of its way to define that universe as locked away and separate.

This is possible in more ways, I think. I'm probably missing a lot, which only seems core because it's prominent in the anomalous session. I don't know! Does anyone else? Thoughts towards a world in which he is not already here, and the frog can hope for something?

[gmanwhore]

Your name is FEFERI MARYAM

You are one of the few of your kind who can withstand the BLISTERING ALTERNIAN SUN, and often enjoy to just walk around and feel its rays ESPECIALLY AT HIGHNOON. You also enjoy the TACTICAL ADVENTAGES going out more often gives you over those who claim they are better landscapers than you, you often end up becoming the envy of those types of trolls.

But that is far from your greatest achievement which might just be the number of DUELS AT DAWN which you have one over your 6 sweeps of life. You are often known for your win streak at FLARP in this specific manner and you often dreaming of being a COWGIRL RAINBOW DRINKER. Don't ask.

Your BLOOD RUNS JADE however you try to not let that stop you from relating with lowbloods and highbloods alike, and in fact you would consider yourself a bit of a LOWBLOOD RIGHTS ACTIVIST making Alternia a better place one protest at a time.

There are few of of your kind that take interest in fiction literature which are not seen as childish BUT YOU ARE ONE OF THEM often writting wild adventures about cowgirls that have duels, drink blood, and ride into the sunset preferably with another girl as their matesprit, moirail, or kismesis in the back of their horse. What can you say? You are A BIT OF A ROMANTIC at heart. The others of your group often praise your creativeness and PAY YOU TO WRITE THEM STORIES. You like to believe you do it for the art and not the recognizion though. You also tend to use your stories as part of your ALTERNIAN ACTIVISM and try to be discreet about it however it may come off as HEAVYHANDED sometimes.

Your trolltag is aspirationalCourtesy and you like to rEmiNd PEolE that for yoU thE GUN aNd thE PEN hold EqUal amoUNts of PowEr

AAAA I LOVE THIS!!!!!!

[almostourgalaxy]

A Spider And The Sea Its Self

You don’t understand why she keeps looking at you like that. Like you’re going to eat her.

Maybe you should, so she’d stop. So you could move on with your life, and stop letting this damn landdweller distract you. Her claws flex into the meat of your arm, and you fight the urge to bite her hand off.

She’d probably let you. She usually does, when you start chewing on her. Only because you let her tear you apart whenever she wants.

You spent too damn long trying to find her. Crossed a few continents in the process, and left a whole swathe of bodies in your wake. She had the nerve to laugh at the fang still stuck in your fin.

She’s not laughing now. No, she has that stupid look in her eyes as she looks up at you, nestled in your arms like you couldn’t snap her in half if you wanted.

She should be more cautious. Anyone else would be. Her hand presses against your face, and that look shifts to reverence. That feels better.

Your name leaves her lips, awkward and unfitting. You barely register it. It doesn’t sound like a name, or even a word coming from her.

You ignore her, squeezing your eye shut and enjoying the attention as she slides her fingers around the base of your horn, working her claws against your scalp. She calls you an old bark beast. You chirp, pulling away to clasp her hand in your jaws and squeeze.

She narrows her eyes at you, a silent challenge. You bite down softly, breaking skin but not bone. Blood pools in your mouth, dripping down your chin. She does not remove her hand.

Instead, she smiles, and kisses your jaw.

“8eloathed heart,” She murmurs, the adoration creeping into her eyes.

“8elovvwed spade,” you growl back, dropping her hand and kissing her. She laughs against your teeth, bites at your lip. You taste your blood, smokey and iron-stung, mixed with hers, salted and burning.

You spent too long tracking her down. And you’ll do it again.

[homestuck-fanauthor-coalition]

@jonayariley

The Era of Her Imperious Condescension in Exile Imperial City, Alternia “Do you mind explaining to me why this is taking so long?” Eridan glared across the makeshift table he’d set up on the Marquise’s deck, sheltered from the rapidly-setting sun by a thick canvas awning. On the other side, Terezi was shifting, looking around nervously. That was good — a good balance where she’d still be able to do her job. “Captain, that plating is reinforced against… shit, pretty much anything. We have to keep stopping to let the equipment cool down so it doesn’t overheat.” He didn’t want to accept this as the explanation — what he wanted to be able to do was throw her off the side of the fucking ship and find someone else who could do the job properly. Except she was right — the crew had plenty of experience with this kind of thing, and if she said it wasn’t going to go faster, then… “How much longer?” Eridan asked. He clenched and unclenched his fist, just out of sight of Terezi below the table. “Sometime later tonight. Maybe tomorrow after dawn.” In his head, Eridan was doing some mental calculations — the Undine would be there soon with the Heiress to the Empire. Maybe it was better for her to be present when the sealed room was opened — there was something of a sense of destiny in that. Of course if the room had nothing important in it she’d have his head for it. Ridiculous — she wants to unlock the secrets of this city as much as I do. “Fine,” Eridan growled under his breath. “Go and tell the welding crew to work at their best possible speed. I trust them to know how to handle that.” She threw him a quick salute — he wasn’t going to bother trying to judge if it was genuine or not — and scurried off to relay the orders. Another headache to deal with.

Chapters:

Rating: Mature

Archive Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence; Major Character Death

Category: F/F; F/M; Multi

Fandom: Homestuck; Hiveswap

Relationships: Meenah Peixes/Aranea Serket; Porrim Maryam/Aranea Serket; Jade Harley/Rose Lalonde; Porrim Maryam & Kankri Vantas; Meenah Peixes/Kankri Vantas; Jane Crocker/Roxy Lalonde; Roxy Lalonde & Dirk Strider; ?????? Elwurd/Porrim Maryam; Jane Crocker/Jake English; Kanaya Maryam/Aradia Megido; Kanaya Maryam & Karkat Vantas; Eridan Ampora/Vriska Serket; Terezi Pyrope/Vriska Serket; Eridan Ampora/Feferi Peixes; June Egbert/Dave Strider

Characters: Aranea Serket; Meenah Peixes; Porrim Maryam; Beforus Feferi Peixes; Jade Harley; Rose Lalonde; Dave Strider; John Egbert; Lynera Skalbi; Charun Krojib; Kankri Vantas; Stelsa Sezyat; Rose's Mom | Beta Roxy Lalonde; Jane Crocker; Roxy Lalonde; Jake English; Dirk Strider; Yiffany Longstocking Lalonde Harley; ?????? Elwurd (Hiveswap); Cronus Ampora; Daraya Jonjet; Latula Pyrope; June Egbert; Damara Megido; Doc Scratch (Homestuck); Karkat Vantas; Aradia Megido; Kanaya Maryam; Tavros Nitram; Feferi Peixes; Eridan Ampora; Vikare Ratite; Ardata Carmia; Terezi Pyrope; Konyyl Okimaw; Boldir Lamati; Skylla Koriga

Additional Tags: Alternate Universe; Alternate Universe - Modern Setting; Alternate Universe - Fantasy; Alternian Empire (Homestuck); Beforus (Homestuck); Modern Era; Alternate Universe - Cyberpunk; Cyberpunk; Alternate Universe - Post-Apocalypse; Alternate Universe - After College/University; God Tier (Homestuck); Derse and Prospit; cosmic horror; Beforus Culling (Homestuck); Private Investigators; Alternate Universe - Urban Fantasy; Attempted Sexual Assault; Heist; Imperial Drones (Homestuck); Alternate Universe - Steampunk; Alternia (Homestuck)

[thewertsearch]

The only threat to her power was unification through uprising, a possibility made remote once she fully decentralized the race from the homeworld. She scattered all but the children throughout the galaxy after the most recent rebellion led by the Summoner. Upon doing so, she became so comfortable with her grip on power, she risked venturing deeper into space than ever before to grow her empire.

To what end, I wonder?

I suppose it’s not a question that really needs answering. The power-hungry need no justification, and empire begets empire. I guess I'm just asking because we’re finally meeting the ruler of Alternia, and it’s only natural for me to wonder at her personal motivations. Does she actually want anything, or is she just evil for evil’s sake?

But the more space she put between herself and Gl'bgolyb, the more she risked weakening her bond with the monster. The bond she and her successor shared with it exclusively could sway, and become strengthened with the younger. Perhaps she grew complacent with the threat successors posed, after such a long history of killing them with ease. Heiresses upon reaching maturity were expected to challenge the Condesce for the throne. It was not merely expected of them by their people, but demanded by their shared lusus.

A little lopsided a challenge, isn't it? Feferi was only a couple of years from fighting a bloodthirsty warrior with centuries of experience, and I can only seeing that ending in one way.

It’s like the deck’s deliberately stacked to keep the most violent, power-hungry Empress on the throne forever. Which is absolutely what's happening, for the record.

I like to think of her as the pet I gave to their race, at the dawning of their species' evolution. Like a sentience-warming gift. Again, it's just the sort of thing a good host does.

Gl'bgolyb is, in effect, a knife that the Empress holds to the lowbloods’ throats, courtesy of her civilization’s founder. As we’re aware, she was also a ticking time bomb, her Glub ensuring that the moment Alternia has served its purpose, the trolls would be deleted.

Just a reminder: Scratch is planning to destroy their universe, so the Glub isn't even necessary. This is literally just for shits and giggles.

I think the Empress is the first troll we’ve seen whose irises (not sclera) have entirely filled in with their blood color. Fitting, for the most ancient troll of all.

She was scouring the edge of the galaxy for systems to plunder when she received word of her planet's devastation by meteors. The young were being slaughtered. The mother grub was dead. The end times were upon her people.

Hey, you’re the one who turned Alternia into Neverland, lady. You’re the reason that there were no adult trolls around to deal with the apocalypse. This is on you.

[abaloneislandfestival]

INFO [In-Character]

What Is The Rainbow Summer Festival? The Rainbow Summer Festival is a three-night summer blowout open to all castes and walks of life, taking place on hostess Xelsia Leyvan’s private island resort. The event is free and features a buffet prepared by skilled chefs from around Alternia, a surfing competition and lessons, live performances throughout the night, private cabins and tours, and much more!

Who Is Xelsia Leyvan? Xelsia Leyvan is Alternia’s darling; Prolific actress, singer-songwriter, and fashion designer, all while aiming with fierce determination for the Empire’s seat and rightfully earning her the title of Celebrity-Heiress.

About Abalone Island  Abalone Island is a luxurious resort with every detail of design and construction personally overseen by Heiress Xelsia Leyvan. The island is home to a vast array of unique and fascinating wildlife and features an active volcano, white sandy beaches, lush jungle, and an extensive cave system. See below for a full list of amenities and events available during the Rainbow Summer Festival.

Endless buffet table with food prepared on an open grill and kitchen pavilion right in front of guests, serving barbecued meats, refreshing desserts, fresh fruit bouquets, and cold drinks all night long

 A bar open from 2am until dawn, stocked with everything you need for the perfect drink made by an expert bartender

Live music and dance performances at Crystal Beach’s main and auxiliary stages, all weekend long

Extensive tropical jungle with hidden ruins, rambling caves, and rare, dangerous wildlife

Scenic picnic and hiking locations across the island offering spectacular views and food delivered straight from the kitchen pavilion

Small automated hovercraft with viewing panels for tours and accessible transportation across, to, or from the island

A luxurious cabin for each guest, either close to the action or secluded for a quiet getaway, private or shared with any trolls of your choosing

Multiple beaches for direct access to the ocean:

- Crystal Beach, featuring the all-night buffet, live music, and primary location for all events - Nautilus Beach, featuring a pristine expanse of white sand for making your own fun - The small, secluded Moonstone, Agate, Jasper, Opal, and Diamond Beaches for peace and quiet

A private hospital staffed by safe and qualified doctors from across Alternia with state-of-the-art technology for emergency use

Relaxing rides and water rescues by Xelsia’s gentle giant sea dragon lusus

Main Events - More information to be announced night of event

Volleyball Games - Each night features a violent volleyball tournament- Survivors take hive a Golden Grub trophy!

Search for Lost Treasure - Scour the ruins, beaches, and caves on the island in search of The Opallyne's long lost treasure! You get to keep any treasure you find- IF you find any!

Wild Hunt - A timed hunt for the rare and ferocious critters of Abalone Island. Bring back one of the listed creatures, dead or alive, for bragging rights and a chance to win a private tour with Heiress Xelsia Leyvan herself!

Rules

No maiming or murder -- Light violence is OK

No nudity or sexual harassment. Keep attire LG-13 in public spaces.

Trolls of all castes and ages welcome

Anyone on the island in the nights following the event will be hunted for sport by security

[29pageshomestuckeveryday]

Homestuck, page 4,053

[o] ==>

Once, in this very universe, you could say, Alternia was home to a peaceful race. Trollkind had never known the corrupting influence in their evolution which led them to perpetual war and violence.

That is to say, they had never known me.

As was true of the bellicose world we know, there came to be twelve heroes on this peaceful planet. These heroes too had twelve ancestors whose fortunes were entwined with theirs. These twenty-four figures of legend were not of this world but sent from the sky, delivered from a reality not yet conceived.

On the eve of their race's extinction, the twelve heroes would begin playing a game. They would make an admirable effort, but they would fail. Their civilization had not prepared them for the rigors of this game, and the ultimate reward would fall shy of their grasp. But their failure was more comprehensive, more systemic, than a result of simple inadequacy so common to young players of this game. Though they could not recognize it for the bad omen it was, this session was not the one in which they had been spawned. Such is the symptom of a subtle glitch affecting certain sessions, an error designed to trigger an unfathomable cascade of misfortune throughout paradox space. This glitch is the calling card of the one I serve. It is the discreet, gentlemanly manner in which he reserves his place in a universe for later visitation.

The heroes, understanding their defeat was absolute, sought advice from the mother of all monsters. She offered them a choice. The heroes could either accept their defeat along with the extinction of their race, and put no others at risk. Or, she could show them a path to a second chance, to a reality in which the chosen heroes of their race would be strong enough to succeed with ease, and claim the reward. This reset would come at the cost of wiping the failed heroes from existence. They would live new lives from scratch, playing different roles in the reset reality, with no memory of the game they played or the choice they made.

The heroes chose to accept this bargain, and scratched their session. In doing so they jumpstarted the reality in which the twenty-four figures of legend would together be created - and I as well - and then sent back in time to take our places in history. Though I was delivered well before history even began, before the dawning of life on their planet. This time around, I would oversee its development, and thus fulfill the mother's promise of an aggressive, ruthlessly prepared group of heroes. One that would not rest until victory was secured.

The young twenty-four would again be scattered in two groups, twelve modern contemporaries, and twelve ancients. But in addition to losing their memories of everything that had happened before the scratch, there was another catch for the failed heroes. In the new reality, they would not serve as the heroes. They would mature to become the ancestors of the twelve they formerly regarded as theirs, and this twelve would be chosen for glory. These children would be the heroes to achieve victory, and have the reward easily within reach.

Of course this promise was fulfilled to the letter, as you have seen. The entire bargain was executed without a single hitch, as those authorized by my master always are. There was however one minor anomaly. One of the failed heroes, in his new life as an ancient on this now brutal planet, began to remember. This is his story.

This is the story of the Signless.