A Homestuck AU prompt that wouldn't even fit on the kinkmeme :O!!
Alrighty so here we have a comically massive Homestuck AU prompt-so massive, in fact, it wouldn’t fit in a single comment on the kinkmeme. Rather than flood the meme with two gigantic blocks of text and no fill to speak of, I’ve just put up the full version of the prompt here.
The original subject line reads, “Vriska/Aradia, Sollux, Terezi, Karkat; humanstuck, dystopian fantasy AU, classism”
Oh and uh, I should probably warn for the death of multiple major characters, though they are all meant to reflect canon events, and for blood and violence though it's not described explicitly in the prompt.
Italicized bits are those included in the abridged version of this prompt, which can be found here.
Fourteen-year-old Vriska Serket has been raised and thoroughly sheltered by her uncle Tavros ever since her parents, Mindfang and the Summoner, were killed eight years ago. Unbeknownst to her, her parents were in league with Redglare-- wanted for the murders of multiple government officials, aristocrats, diplomats and soldiers-- and her husband, the Signless, who spread the "treasonous" ideals of equality between aristocratic/government-affiliated individuals ("just a bunch of prissy inbred tools who're probably just jealous because not one of them has shown any psionic traits for centuries") and the lower, usually impoverished classes, many of whom do display psionic abilities. Most members of the former group and certainly anyone strongly in favor of the current regime (under the Condesce and Dualscar, of course :/) of-- well, let's just call it Alternia-- regard the latter as nothing but servants, particularly those with powers which can be utilized for military service.
Anyone considered useless or traitorous or uncooperative or even just pesky runs the risk of being killed by local law enforcement, often without any warning, much less a second chance. Those neither impoverished nor truly aristocratic (the middle class, I suppose, though upper-middle might be more accurate. This is where you've got your Nepetas and Kanayas and Equii) vary in their treatment of the lower class members, some being sympathetic, others fearful, and still others violent and dominating without cause.
All four "ancestors" (Mindfang, Summoner, Redglare and Signless-- their anonymous titles, I suppose?) were wanted for years by the government for their actions against the empire. While the boys mostly practiced peaceful revolution by providing food, shelter and/or wisdom to those disadvantaged by the Condesce's regime, Redglare and Mindfang were more aggressive. Redglare was fancied by many low caste individuals as a Robin Hood like figure, as her specialty was in avenging the deaths of psionics and their families caused by the empire. Mindfang, however, took it a little too far, eventually killing anyone she met who even said a bad word about the caste she came from. In her bloodlust, she began to care less and less about keeping herself and her allies hidden, and her sloppiness is what eventually got all four of them spotted by the law enforcement and killed.
Once a year the kingdom (a city or city-state with multiple slums and impoverished suburbs is what I've been picturing, though admittedly it's all rather anachronistic and I know very little about historical forms of government...) is combed for children displaying said potentially useful abilities. All the recruited children will be gathered at a military base at the center of the city, and tested further to determine their usefulness to the kingdom. (For the purpose of (relative...) brevity, let's just call this process the Reckoning.) Those who qualify will enter a training facility until adulthood, then be placed in duty as soldiers, pilots (*cough* helmsmen *cough*), war strategists, etc.
Some parents will volunteer their children-- aged anywhere from eighteen months to eighteen years, but most often recruited between the ages of two and eight-- as rumors of how psionics are treated vary across parts of the kingdom, and it pays better than most non-military jobs. Other children's abilities will be reported by neighbors, and the third group will be taken by government squads by force.
Vriska knows nothing of the empire's cruelty and disdain toward her caste, but does know that people who report the existence of their powers to the government get to go to a school to perfect their skills and then go on a bunch of awesome adventures all around the world! She was born with vision eightfold, and she's "really good at [her] powers even though [she's] had no formal training, so why the hell shouldn't [she] get to go????????" Tavros, on the other hand, insists it's not all it's cracked up to be, but never tells her why or anything about what happened to her parents out of fear that more knowledge will only endanger Vriska.
Every year when the Reckoning rolls around, Tavros's "overprotective coddling" becomes even more intrusive: he's so afraid she'll be spotted and taken away that she forbids her to even enter the city proper. In her fourteenth year, however, Vriska decides she's going to volunteer for placement at the training facility whether he wants her to or not-- and when he tries to stop her, she fights back using her powers. Without meaning to do any more than disarm him long enough to escape, she accidentally acquaints him with the top of a flight of stairs. Vriska is terrified that she may have injured him irreparably, which only doubles her determination to make it to the Reckoning as she fears that if she returns her uncle may not welcome her back.
Her powers are more than adequate for entrance into the school, though most of her fellow students have been at the facility since much earlier in their lives; and, she soon discovers, most of them did not enter willingly. She quickly befriends her new roommate Aradia Megido, though she finds her best friend Sollux Captor much less palatable. Mostly, she slowly realizes, Vriska is intensely jealous of Aradia and Sollux's closeness-- more like siblings' love than romantic, but impenetrable all the same, and completely unlike any of the short-lived friendships Vriska's maintained over the years. Her feelings from Aradia quickly progress from platonic fondness to romantic interest. Quadrants aren't really a thing in this AU, of course, but if they did then she and Aradia would be in dire need of an auspistice, as their feelings swap between intense empathy and protectiveness and vengeful, jealous animosity practically every week.
Both Sollux and Aradia are fifteen, and have been at the facility almost their entire lives-- Sollux for thirteen years, Aradia for twelve. They've been inseparable for almost as long, friends and siblings and confidants all at once. Using his technical genius and her levelheadedness and fascination with historical technology, the two have invented a number of small but handy trinkets, most of which run partially on psionics and other organic elements. Their most recent and most impressive conquest is a prototype of a new, far more humane variation on a helmsman's equipment: a device in the form of a simple monocle despite its hooks into the wearer's brain, so let's just call it a Monocle. When connected-- somehow, haha, magical technology is not exactly my strong-suit!-- to any contained residence (like a house, a boat, or even just one room or the inside of a cave), the Monocle allows the pilot and any others traveling with him to use it as a mode of transport via teleportation. It's more like Malfoy's Vanishing Cabinet, or the Weasleys' tent, than the Tardis, as it appears to stay in one place to outside viewers, but the space is malleable from the inside, easily cloaked into a simple abandoned room to any intruders, and accommodating to any size the pilot's energy and power levels can afford.
The two also hold nearly-identical secrets: in addition to their powers (telekinetic/weaponized eyebeams in Sollux's case; ghost summoning and the power of flight in Aradia's), they both have fortune-telling voices in their heads ("voiice2 of the iimmiinently decea2ed"; "whispers 0f the l0ng-departed" yadda yadda canon). These afflictions are very common in those with non-psionic abilities, but to have both voices and powers is fairly rare, and most of those born this way are killed. Prophetic voices are considered sinful and dangerous in this society, and anyone with this predisposition toward treason combined with weaponizable power is subject to death, as an inherent threat. To their knowledge, Sollux and Aradia are the only people with this double-mutation currently living, and until Vriska's entrance they're the only two people who know it.
Unfortunately, despite a few months' exposure to the role of a psionic in Alternian society, Vriska remains largely naive regarding the dangers of Aradia and Sollux's position to her friends' well-being. Eventually, either as a slip of the tongue or a vengeful jab, she lets an official in on her roommate's secret, and Aradia is whisked away and killed before she can say "kismesis." When Sollux finds out about this he is both horrified with Vriska and furious with the government-- always before, he's had Aradia there to convince him to just lay low and hope for the best, but without his only safety net he finds himself unable to abide the cruelty of his position. Vriska apologizes profusely and insists she didn't know the consequences would be this severe, and when Sollux tells her he's going to leave the facility and find a hub for the Monocle so he can cover his tracks, she begs him to take her with him.
Rather than refusing because of her involvement in Aradia's death, Sollux decides to let her come too so as not to risk being outed as well, and because her powers will be useful to aid him in his escape. She shoos away all but one of the guards that discover them on their way out, but is shot through the eye by the last one, as all the guards have been trained to do to escaping psychics, as their eyes provide the center of their power. Due to his telekinetic ability to fly, Sollux is able to take Vriska with him even now that she's powerless and faint from blood loss, and though he's not personally very fond of her he refuses to leave her there with the tyrants who maimed her and killed their mutual best friend.
He travels away from the facility for hours by flight, but is bogged down before long by the exertion of carrying two people rather than only himself, so once they feel confident they won't be spotted within the night, they take refuge at the heart of a forest neither of them recognize, in hopes it'll be more sheltered than anywhere else from pursuers. Early the next morning, an unconscious Vriska with a blood-caked shirt wrapped around her head and a fitfully sleeping Sollux are found by orphaned siblings Karkat (~19) and Terezi (~15): the children of Redglare and the Signless who've been living in hiding since their parents' death.
And see okay now I've run out of backstory and here's where I need help! The implication of course is that Karkat and Terezi offer Vriska and Sollux shelter, and in return Sollux uses their house as the hub for the Monocle and lets them come with him and Vriska. My plan was for them to continue their parents' legacy as vigilantes for the oppressed lower class (as Karkat and Terezi are much more knowledgeable about their parents' goals than Vriska was ever allowed to be), likely starting with the liberation of everyone else at the training facility.
A straight-up fill would be excellent of course, but what I'd like even better is if someone would be willing to collaborate with me to make this happen. I'd write it myself but I can't seem to get started, and I refuse to give up on the idea! I've doodled some character designs for Vriska and Sollux, and I think the universe has a lot of potential. I'd love to illustrate or co-write this fic, but I don't think I could write it all myself, so please have at it :B
Thank you for reading, any brave soldiers who made it this far, and if you’re interested then I’d be thrilled if you replied here, or to the original kinkmeme post, or just messaged me privately.
Oh! And as for pairings (other than Vriska/Aradia), I’m thoroughly enthused about any combination of the characters listed in the subject line (though preferably not Karkat/Terezi since they’re siblings in this AU…) since I pretty much took my four favorite trolls and stuck them in an AU together. I am a tragic lone wolf all across the fandom I suppose for listing Sollux/Terezi as my OTP; Vriska/Sollux or Vriska/Karkat would be fascinating; and Vriska/Terezi and Karkat/Sollux are old favorites too :3
The original subject line reads, “Vriska/Aradia, Sollux, Terezi, Karkat; humanstuck, dystopian fantasy AU, classism”
Oh and uh, I should probably warn for the death of multiple major characters, though they are all meant to reflect canon events, and for blood and violence though it's not described explicitly in the prompt.
Italicized bits are those included in the abridged version of this prompt, which can be found here.
Fourteen-year-old Vriska Serket has been raised and thoroughly sheltered by her uncle Tavros ever since her parents, Mindfang and the Summoner, were killed eight years ago. Unbeknownst to her, her parents were in league with Redglare-- wanted for the murders of multiple government officials, aristocrats, diplomats and soldiers-- and her husband, the Signless, who spread the "treasonous" ideals of equality between aristocratic/government-affiliated individuals ("just a bunch of prissy inbred tools who're probably just jealous because not one of them has shown any psionic traits for centuries") and the lower, usually impoverished classes, many of whom do display psionic abilities. Most members of the former group and certainly anyone strongly in favor of the current regime (under the Condesce and Dualscar, of course :/) of-- well, let's just call it Alternia-- regard the latter as nothing but servants, particularly those with powers which can be utilized for military service.
Anyone considered useless or traitorous or uncooperative or even just pesky runs the risk of being killed by local law enforcement, often without any warning, much less a second chance. Those neither impoverished nor truly aristocratic (the middle class, I suppose, though upper-middle might be more accurate. This is where you've got your Nepetas and Kanayas and Equii) vary in their treatment of the lower class members, some being sympathetic, others fearful, and still others violent and dominating without cause.
All four "ancestors" (Mindfang, Summoner, Redglare and Signless-- their anonymous titles, I suppose?) were wanted for years by the government for their actions against the empire. While the boys mostly practiced peaceful revolution by providing food, shelter and/or wisdom to those disadvantaged by the Condesce's regime, Redglare and Mindfang were more aggressive. Redglare was fancied by many low caste individuals as a Robin Hood like figure, as her specialty was in avenging the deaths of psionics and their families caused by the empire. Mindfang, however, took it a little too far, eventually killing anyone she met who even said a bad word about the caste she came from. In her bloodlust, she began to care less and less about keeping herself and her allies hidden, and her sloppiness is what eventually got all four of them spotted by the law enforcement and killed.
Once a year the kingdom (a city or city-state with multiple slums and impoverished suburbs is what I've been picturing, though admittedly it's all rather anachronistic and I know very little about historical forms of government...) is combed for children displaying said potentially useful abilities. All the recruited children will be gathered at a military base at the center of the city, and tested further to determine their usefulness to the kingdom. (For the purpose of (relative...) brevity, let's just call this process the Reckoning.) Those who qualify will enter a training facility until adulthood, then be placed in duty as soldiers, pilots (*cough* helmsmen *cough*), war strategists, etc.
Some parents will volunteer their children-- aged anywhere from eighteen months to eighteen years, but most often recruited between the ages of two and eight-- as rumors of how psionics are treated vary across parts of the kingdom, and it pays better than most non-military jobs. Other children's abilities will be reported by neighbors, and the third group will be taken by government squads by force.
Vriska knows nothing of the empire's cruelty and disdain toward her caste, but does know that people who report the existence of their powers to the government get to go to a school to perfect their skills and then go on a bunch of awesome adventures all around the world! She was born with vision eightfold, and she's "really good at [her] powers even though [she's] had no formal training, so why the hell shouldn't [she] get to go????????" Tavros, on the other hand, insists it's not all it's cracked up to be, but never tells her why or anything about what happened to her parents out of fear that more knowledge will only endanger Vriska.
Every year when the Reckoning rolls around, Tavros's "overprotective coddling" becomes even more intrusive: he's so afraid she'll be spotted and taken away that she forbids her to even enter the city proper. In her fourteenth year, however, Vriska decides she's going to volunteer for placement at the training facility whether he wants her to or not-- and when he tries to stop her, she fights back using her powers. Without meaning to do any more than disarm him long enough to escape, she accidentally acquaints him with the top of a flight of stairs. Vriska is terrified that she may have injured him irreparably, which only doubles her determination to make it to the Reckoning as she fears that if she returns her uncle may not welcome her back.
Her powers are more than adequate for entrance into the school, though most of her fellow students have been at the facility since much earlier in their lives; and, she soon discovers, most of them did not enter willingly. She quickly befriends her new roommate Aradia Megido, though she finds her best friend Sollux Captor much less palatable. Mostly, she slowly realizes, Vriska is intensely jealous of Aradia and Sollux's closeness-- more like siblings' love than romantic, but impenetrable all the same, and completely unlike any of the short-lived friendships Vriska's maintained over the years. Her feelings from Aradia quickly progress from platonic fondness to romantic interest. Quadrants aren't really a thing in this AU, of course, but if they did then she and Aradia would be in dire need of an auspistice, as their feelings swap between intense empathy and protectiveness and vengeful, jealous animosity practically every week.
Both Sollux and Aradia are fifteen, and have been at the facility almost their entire lives-- Sollux for thirteen years, Aradia for twelve. They've been inseparable for almost as long, friends and siblings and confidants all at once. Using his technical genius and her levelheadedness and fascination with historical technology, the two have invented a number of small but handy trinkets, most of which run partially on psionics and other organic elements. Their most recent and most impressive conquest is a prototype of a new, far more humane variation on a helmsman's equipment: a device in the form of a simple monocle despite its hooks into the wearer's brain, so let's just call it a Monocle. When connected-- somehow, haha, magical technology is not exactly my strong-suit!-- to any contained residence (like a house, a boat, or even just one room or the inside of a cave), the Monocle allows the pilot and any others traveling with him to use it as a mode of transport via teleportation. It's more like Malfoy's Vanishing Cabinet, or the Weasleys' tent, than the Tardis, as it appears to stay in one place to outside viewers, but the space is malleable from the inside, easily cloaked into a simple abandoned room to any intruders, and accommodating to any size the pilot's energy and power levels can afford.
The two also hold nearly-identical secrets: in addition to their powers (telekinetic/weaponized eyebeams in Sollux's case; ghost summoning and the power of flight in Aradia's), they both have fortune-telling voices in their heads ("voiice2 of the iimmiinently decea2ed"; "whispers 0f the l0ng-departed" yadda yadda canon). These afflictions are very common in those with non-psionic abilities, but to have both voices and powers is fairly rare, and most of those born this way are killed. Prophetic voices are considered sinful and dangerous in this society, and anyone with this predisposition toward treason combined with weaponizable power is subject to death, as an inherent threat. To their knowledge, Sollux and Aradia are the only people with this double-mutation currently living, and until Vriska's entrance they're the only two people who know it.
Unfortunately, despite a few months' exposure to the role of a psionic in Alternian society, Vriska remains largely naive regarding the dangers of Aradia and Sollux's position to her friends' well-being. Eventually, either as a slip of the tongue or a vengeful jab, she lets an official in on her roommate's secret, and Aradia is whisked away and killed before she can say "kismesis." When Sollux finds out about this he is both horrified with Vriska and furious with the government-- always before, he's had Aradia there to convince him to just lay low and hope for the best, but without his only safety net he finds himself unable to abide the cruelty of his position. Vriska apologizes profusely and insists she didn't know the consequences would be this severe, and when Sollux tells her he's going to leave the facility and find a hub for the Monocle so he can cover his tracks, she begs him to take her with him.
Rather than refusing because of her involvement in Aradia's death, Sollux decides to let her come too so as not to risk being outed as well, and because her powers will be useful to aid him in his escape. She shoos away all but one of the guards that discover them on their way out, but is shot through the eye by the last one, as all the guards have been trained to do to escaping psychics, as their eyes provide the center of their power. Due to his telekinetic ability to fly, Sollux is able to take Vriska with him even now that she's powerless and faint from blood loss, and though he's not personally very fond of her he refuses to leave her there with the tyrants who maimed her and killed their mutual best friend.
He travels away from the facility for hours by flight, but is bogged down before long by the exertion of carrying two people rather than only himself, so once they feel confident they won't be spotted within the night, they take refuge at the heart of a forest neither of them recognize, in hopes it'll be more sheltered than anywhere else from pursuers. Early the next morning, an unconscious Vriska with a blood-caked shirt wrapped around her head and a fitfully sleeping Sollux are found by orphaned siblings Karkat (~19) and Terezi (~15): the children of Redglare and the Signless who've been living in hiding since their parents' death.
And see okay now I've run out of backstory and here's where I need help! The implication of course is that Karkat and Terezi offer Vriska and Sollux shelter, and in return Sollux uses their house as the hub for the Monocle and lets them come with him and Vriska. My plan was for them to continue their parents' legacy as vigilantes for the oppressed lower class (as Karkat and Terezi are much more knowledgeable about their parents' goals than Vriska was ever allowed to be), likely starting with the liberation of everyone else at the training facility.
A straight-up fill would be excellent of course, but what I'd like even better is if someone would be willing to collaborate with me to make this happen. I'd write it myself but I can't seem to get started, and I refuse to give up on the idea! I've doodled some character designs for Vriska and Sollux, and I think the universe has a lot of potential. I'd love to illustrate or co-write this fic, but I don't think I could write it all myself, so please have at it :B
Thank you for reading, any brave soldiers who made it this far, and if you’re interested then I’d be thrilled if you replied here, or to the original kinkmeme post, or just messaged me privately.
Oh! And as for pairings (other than Vriska/Aradia), I’m thoroughly enthused about any combination of the characters listed in the subject line (though preferably not Karkat/Terezi since they’re siblings in this AU…) since I pretty much took my four favorite trolls and stuck them in an AU together. I am a tragic lone wolf all across the fandom I suppose for listing Sollux/Terezi as my OTP; Vriska/Sollux or Vriska/Karkat would be fascinating; and Vriska/Terezi and Karkat/Sollux are old favorites too :3