Tag: homestuck

mtjester:

The Syndicate: Details

While each member of the Syndicate (except for Tavros) is a balanced mercenary with multiple skill sets, each has strengths and preferences. Meenah is second-in-command to the Doctor, the kingpin of the mafia, and she manages the Syndicate…with a little extra help, unknown to everyone but the Doctor. Eridan is pretty straightforward, and Cronus can be a bit of a loose cannon, especially on a motorbike or when there’s a chance to show off. Damara prefers to operate unseen, through stealth, surprise, or sabotage, and she tends to avoid firefights except in extremely close quarter combat. Tavros’s “human resources” is mainly an extension of his friendly nature, which has helped him become a favorite among the low level grunts. His espionage skills are mostly due to: 1) Vriska’s luck magic; 2) his disposition, which is so unsuited for his line of work that others can’t believe he’s actually anyone important; and 3) his roleplaying experience. Unfortunately, espionage work also stresses him out a lot. He’s working on it, along with all the other mercenary skills he doesn’t have.

Some quick facts:

1) Petty spats and fast flings are common among all the members of the Syndicate, which is typical in any group with one (and especially more than one) demons involved. Meenah doesn’t let any of it affect work, and when things get bad, they all go to “the Pit,” a boxing ring in one of the Doctor’s warehouses, to fight it out. For this reason, Tavros tends to surrender too quickly when he gets caught up in these problems.

2) Vriska avoids the Syndicate and rarely visits Tavros when he’s “working.” Tavros doesn’t know why. Neither does Meenah. Neither are aware of the others’ secret. The arrangement is quiet, polite, and efficient.

3) The Syndicate frequently switches between periods of heavy activity and low activity. On their downtime, they play a lot of tabletop and video games, spend a lot of time honing their combat or practical skills, and make a lot of bad decisions that are very probably connected to demon influence. 

Contractstuck: AO3 | Tumblr

momnar:

Ancestral Summonings – a comic inspired by elanorpam’s AU, in which the trolls can channel their ancestors and/or be full on possessed by them in battle. I highly recommend checking out the original post. They put a lot of thought into it!

This comic was inspired by their description of the Signless’ role. From what I read of it, the guy never does anything for the offensive beyond calming/distracting the adversary. This was my interpretation as to what would happen if there was nothing else left to try, what WOULD this guy’s attack be if it was truly needed?

Basically, what I came up with was that he still would not be able to directly do anything, but by taking full possession of Karkat (something he refuses to do normally) he can exploit the young troll’s blood aspect, essentially turning him into a puppet master. Through this he can combine his pacifying abilities with another’s attack form. The specific attack would be different depending on which troll is available for use. In this case, he uses Sollux’s abilities to reach out and absorb negative energy (Alt. title – “The Scrufferer and the Extendable Shooshpap”) and disperse it back into the environment. This form of intervention is too complicated and dangerous to justify using regularly, but can be used as a quick and dirty last resort.

Except for the fact that losing control of himself to full possession for the first time spooks Karkat into never wanting to ask for his help ever again.

Looooots of experimenting in this one: mainly “How do open mouths” and “What the heckie is perspective?”. Also, this thing was too long so I settled for a totally original comic-book style setup. Go me.

Silly monster. Only Vriska is allowed to strangle her toredumbass. 

Sidenote: Aforementioned toredumbass is totally still alive. Don’t worry.

bunny apocalypse: will we ever see AR and Seb meet Dirk again? idk where you’re going so if if the plot is “they learn to navigate their new world” then i just wonder how he would react. (probably like an ass at first, but. XD) … ok this is probably spoilery as hell no matter what. sorry. XD

curlicuecal:

So, I have the plot in my head that’s like, THE plot. And that involves no universes meeting and just AR and beforus trolls and co figuring their shit out and doing plotty things.

But then I *also* have this hypothetical future crossover plot in my head that would be set somewhere vaguely after “the” plot and involve folks from the GPDFF (winning) verse getting together a search party to go check on AR. Which is possibly a bit self-indulgent because I don’t know how well it holds up from a plot/continuity/character-building stand point, but it entertains me to think about.

–partly because I like crossovers, but also partly because I think it would be amusing to let AR get all settled into his new world and position in it and then challenge him with “surprise, here’s the REAL version of you again.”

(And I guess this is loosely the canon I imagine for “Probably We’ll All Survive”, wherein it’s the future and they’re doing… cross universe random drop-ins for family bonding purposes? Look, it doesn’t need to be sensible if it satisfies a need, ok? :pp)

*edit* Also he reacts by being a massive standoffish asshole preemptively because what if rejection???

except Seb’s all like “don’t be a dick, Bro” and is all quietly super pleased to see Jane and such and so AR has to resentfully tolerate their presence while angsting and then there is character growth and (eventually) bonding.

oh actually also related to lbo, i was rereading a few days ago and had a question about the blood reveal at the end of the latest chapter. why does AR know that red blood is off the spectrum, but he didn’t know that the vantas’s had it? or did he know that karkat had it, he just didn’t know that kankri did as well? why was he surprised, in other words? or where did he pick up one piece of information (red blood is a mutation) but not the other (kankri had it)? or am i missing something obvious?

curlicuecal:

This is a really good question and I can answer it. 🙂

AR (or rather Dirk) grew up in a post-apocalyptic world that the Condesce was attempting to forcibly remodel into Alternia.  So AR actually has a pretty thorough, if secondhand, grounding in how trolls and Alternian troll culture works, with possibly some holes or misinformation scattered in.  Thus the general grasp of hemocaste and ideas about mutants.  But it’s removed enough that he doesn’t always apply it automatically.

tbh, AR’s about as disconnected from human culture as he is from troll culture.  It’s kind of a weird viewpoint to write from since I like to do culture clash things.  (It’s especially weird when writing a “dropped in a strange world” fic because AR often doesn’t have context to even register things as strange.)  ….AR doesn’t so much culture clash as people-clash.

As for the Karkat question I actually went back and forth on whether AR would know this in the divergent-AU Game context.  But I wound up settling on not, mostly because AR hardly interacted with Karkat at all, and unless Karkat had had a dramatic reveal which somebody else had made a big fuss about, it wouldn’t have registered.  Also, not knowing created more conflict.

curlicuecal:

chuchacz:

“It’s alright if you’re overcome. Many people find my presence overwhelming. Try averting your gaze and breathing to a slow count of ten until the butterflies fade.”

Nope. Nothing. In the charged silence you continue to partition up the cake, a bite at a time, and his attention remains stubbornly on either the wall or the food in front of his face, cutting you out entirely. You resist the urge to poke him with the fork. It’s childish and born out of nothing more than the desire to provoke a reaction just because he doesn’t want to give you one. You’re contrary like that. Plus when he’s so quiet it’s harder to distract yourself from all the little details your attention keeps snagging on—the continued color in his cheeks, the heat from his breath. The low adrenaline buzz of nerves along your spine, like your system’s gearing up for a fight.

llustrations for awesome fics cyber!bunny apocalypse ` verse

written by curlicuecal

Did I mentioned I love how AR and Kankri interact? Because I do! I  enjoy very much how they banter, argue, jab,…Seb isn`t much of a talker, General too, but AR and Kankri get it right! 😀

*wolf sips her tea&reads whole cyber!bunny verse again*

aaaaaaaaaaa  *huff* *flop*  I am pretty sure it should be illegal to make Kankri that adorable.

and all their postures and AR’s snippy face and Seb being a patient cutiepie while they get their banter on eeeee.  *happy sigh*

oh my gosh, I miss these babies.  *eyes slide to word doc.*  I am supposed to be doing other things.  *eyes slide back.*  whoops, how did this open, where did these words come from, where did my evening go, who can say. :333

curlicuecal:

chuchacz:

“You’re my Bro,” Seb says, in a voice that indicates that he’s stating the obvious and he doesn’t know why you’re being so dim.

…Welp. You could argue with him some more. You could argue with him
a lot more. But underneath that technical truth is the creeping
realization that nothing you could say to him is going to have the
slightest success budging him from this point. The thought feels a bit
like zero gravity. The contents of your abdomen are definitely not all
in the right places.[…]

Seb follows your second direction and gets around to the first one when you nudge him a few times. With your foot.

“…Bro Strider, huh.” Seb’s a weird little kid. You
guess it wouldn’t hurt to humor him. If it makes him happy. “It seems
you have selected another functional descriptor. Are you certain this
isn’t an elaborate prank designed to label me with the abbreviation
‘BS’? Are you attempting to convey something, li’l bro? Do you not
find that every word from these lips to be wisdom distilled to nigh on
godly levels?”

You duck your head aside as a forkful of potato flies
past. “Just because you throw your food on the ground doesn’t mean you
don’t have to eat it.”

The General interjects something, leaning his chin on
one point-fingered hand. Kankri translates without prompting. “He
says that it is appropriate for your descriptor to change as your
function does.”

Illustrations for awesome fics

cyber!bunny apocalypse ` verse

written by curlicuecal

Im just so happy with this scene, AR gets his descriptor from Seb& his function in the story is clear. As long as he has his little bro he is Bro and that`s that 🙂

*wolf sighs happily&sips her tea*

Eeeeeeeeeeee. Look at AR hanging onto him all “ohmigod kid, stop trying to give your food away and eat already.’ socute.

I can’t deal with how precious these drawings are.